i. Headwaters, drawn from Green Bell, waters from the Rawthey, Clough River and the Dee, waters from the Greta – unstoppable riverchatter under the arches as they wind down the flood plain to pick up the Wenning, the Hindburn and Roeburn: clear water – every stone on the bed gilded by sun. Well, that was last week. Now the river’s falling over itself, boiling and brown, long chains of bubble and froth. No one fishing, no one picnicking or skimming stones; no children shrieking at the water’s sudden cold. The depth gauge on the pier reads five feet. Even at midsummer, hedgerows and fences are draped with grasses and twigs where the river leaps from the channel for its favourite short cut by-passing the triple-arched bridge. Jane Routh ii. iii. iv. |