THE QUEEN’S PLAISANCE 189

The sun was bright and the wind was keen; the air
sparkled, and all the world was full of life. Hammers
beat in the builders’ yards; wild bargees sang hoarsely as
they drifted down to the Isle of Dogs; and in slow ships
that crept away to catch the wind in the open stream
below, with tawny sails drooping and rimmed with frost,
they heard the hail of salty mariners.

The tide ran strong, and the steady oars carried them
swiftly down. London passed ; then solitary hamlets here
and there; then dun fields running to the river’s edge like
thirsty deer.

In Deptford Reach some lords who were coming down
by water passed them, racing with a little Dutch boat from
Deptford to the turn. Their boats had holly-bushes at
their prows and holiday garlands along their sides. They
were all shouting gaily, and the stream was bright with
their scarlet cloaks, Lincoln-green jerkins, and gold em-
broidery. But they were very badly beaten, at which
they laughed, and threw the Dutchmen a handful of silver
pennies. Thereupon the Dutchmen stood up in their boat
and bowed like jointed ninepins; and the lords, not to be
outdone, stood up likewise in their boats and bowed very
low in return, with their hands upon their breasts. Then
everybody on the river laughed, and the boys gave three
cheers for the merry lords and three more for the sturdy
Dutchmen. The Dutchmen shouted back, “Goot Yule!”
and bowed and bowed until their boat turned round and
went stern foremost down the stream, so that they were
bewing to the opposite bank, where no one wasatall. At