Dr.Knapp places this episode in the year 1817, when Borrow was but fourteen years of age and Gurney was twenty-nine.

I need not apologise at this point for a very lengthy quotation from a familiar book: At some distance from the city, behind a range of hilly ground which rises towards the south-west, is a small river, the waters of which, after many meanderings, eventually enter the principal river of the district, and assist to swell the tide which it rolls down to the ocean.

It is a sweet rivulet, and pleasant it is to trace its course from its spring-head, high up in the remote regions of Eastern Anglia, till it arrives in the valley behind yon rising ground; and pleasant is that valley, truly a good spot, but most lovely where yonder bridge crosses the little stream.

Beneath its arch the waters rush garrulously into a blue pool, and are there stilled for a time, for the pool is deep, and they appear to have sunk to sleep.
Farther on, however, you hear their voice again, where they ripple gaily over yon gravelly shallow.

On the left the hill slopes gently down to the margin of the stream.