He points out at the outset that "most people today know no more of the canals than they do of the old green roads which the pack-horse trains once travelled."

They make their way up the still busy Trent and Mersey Canal through the Potteries before emerging into the rural landscape of Church Minshull where they stay and enjoy the unspoilt English countryside.

Sir Compton Mackenzie described it as "an elegy of classic restraint unmarred by any trace of sentiment.

The most significant was from an address in Bloomsbury, signed by Robert Aickman, suggesting the formation of a voluntary society to campaign for the greater use of the canals.

As a result, a meeting was held at which the Inland Waterways Association was formed, attracting such notables as A. P. Herbert and Lord Methuen.