river, and in warm
weather in the river. This has been the pleasant custom of the Pragers
from time immemorial; it has not been appreciated by some of the
visitors to Prague. So, for instance, this so-called English lady,
Elizabeth, wife of him whom history nicknames the "Winter King," was
shocked at the very liberal display of pink flesh one day when crossing
the Charles Bridge. It was probably a sunny day, and many people of
Prague were disporting themselves in the Vltava, as they do to-day. You
may see them swimming about or in boatloads pulled by some enthusiastic
if perspiring male member of the family; indeed, the results of
Bohemia's excellent cuisine are much in evidence. It must be admitted
that the same cuisine tends to develop a certain redundancy among those
no longer in their first youth. Perhaps the sight of exuberant ladies,
scantily clad and bulging over the gunwale of a frail craft, provoked
the English Princess to a shocked utterance, the account of which,
purposely garbled by the Jesuits, spread abroad like wildfire, and
caused much unfavourable comment. The lady herself was subject to remark
by the Pragers on account of her very _decollete_ dresses after the
fashion set by the Court of her father, King James I of England, of whom
it is said, by the way, that he was not over addicted to washing--the
tips of his fingers were about the extent of his ablutions; so
stone-throwing was out of place in this instance, as in all others.
However, as we know, Elizabeth did not make a prolonged stay in Prague;
her husband Frederick, by no means endowed with the physical courage of
his son Rupert, the Prince Palatine, did a memorable "sprint" when he
heard how the people of his adoption had been defeated. The people of
Prague then had much more serious matters to concern themselves with
than an English Princess's dresses. The troops of the Empire marched
into Prague, adventurers of many nations swarmed into the city and
settled there while Jesuits set about bringing back the citizens into
the fold of the Roman Church by lighting bonfires with the works of the
earnest divines who followed in the footsteps of John Hus and the
reformers. They endeavoured by these means to stamp out any tendency to
freedom of thought, religious and political, in the people of Bohemia.
In this they failed.

[Illustration]

While talking of the aquatic habits of the people of Prague, of Bohemia
generally, I am reminded of accounts by