This was the river that Nanny and I set out to explore, and immediately we made our first discovery: Dragon’s Bridge. There could be no doubt about it; for there was the great, blunt snout raised above the bank; there was the eye, round, hollow, staring; there was the branching wing, ready to beat the air; there was the leg poised above the water; and there was the great, green scaly back down which you could—(‘Do you think I dare, Nanny?’ ‘Be very careful, dear.’)—down which you could if you were very careful, clamber until you were right across to the other side.
Dragon’s Bridge. This became and remained one of my favourite spots, the site of so many small adventures and happy memories. It was here that I built my hut of ash poles and bracken, here that I had my rope ladder (fastened to a giant oak tree that had perhaps sprung from one of the dragon’s very own acorns), here that I launched my raft on its ten-yard voyage, and here that I swam with Anne.
—Christopher Milne, The Enchanted Places: A Childhood Memoir, 1974
