robert aickman's connection with the inland waterways association has always been a bit of vague and unattached information rattling around in the back of my mind, but i found a copy of know your waterways in the harvard depository and got it out to have a look.

on appropriate dress on boating holidays, aickman writes:

"here it is to be feared that the english climate intervenes. there is no need to invest in oilskins or in polar windproofs; but for both sexes an undoubted essential is a really tough raincoat. that embarrassment being provided for, the rest of your attire, like the waterways themselves, should strike a balance between utility and decorativeness... The right to wear trousers without comment is an important achievement of the female emancipation; and it is one of which on the waterways every woman is wise to take advantage. on the other hand, there is no need for either sex to look as if they worked in the asbestos mines of siberia. it really is possible to combine sartorial functionalism with good design and even elegance. the failure to do so will unconsciously set the whole trip in an unneccessarily low key."