First Sentence

"IT was pleasant down there in Berkshire, when the water rushed beneath the keel; our oars feathered neatly on the ringing rowlocks; the river foamed and flew as we gripped it; and the alders and willows tossed in the sunshine, while we-private pupils, as our tutor called us-men, as we called ourselves-used to pull up the Kennet, as though we were some of an University Eight, and lunch at the Ferry Inn off raw chops and half-and-half, making love to its big-boned, red-haired Hebe, and happy as kings in those summer days, in the dead years long past and gone."