Stour

Eva climbed the stairs to Romer's office, trying to analyse the complex smell in the stairwell - a cross between mushrooms and soot, ancient stour and mildew, she decided.

So many sleeping in the same room, so many breaths, so much stour arising from their working-clothes, so much perspiration from the men themselves, it is impossible to be comfortable.

A fenny gooſe, even as her fleſhe is blacker, ſtoorer, unholſomer, ſo is her feather, for the ſame cauſe, courſer, ſtoorer, and rougher, and therefore I have heard very good fletchers ſay, that the ſecond fether in ſome place is better than the pinion in other ſome.

Then there began a passyng harde stoure, for the Romaynes ever wexed ever bygger.

This pair, who past have many a dreadful stour, / And proffer now to prove this venture stout, / Alone to this attempt let them go forth, / Alone than thousands of more price and worth.

Then gan she waile and weepe, to see that woefull stowre.

The Stour is at its lowest ebb, and the sheen of the flats makes it difficult to tell where ground ends and water begins, out in the bay.