THE PORTSMOUTH ROAD 179 



driver of the Hero, now qualified for charioteers in the 

 Roman chariot races at the Paris Hippodrome, by 

 ch'iving their respective vehicles at full gallop down a 

 steep and winding pitch. At the bottom of it they met 

 a post-chaise returning from somewhere or other ; but 

 they did not heed it ; the petrified post-boy only saved 

 his neck by driving at full speed into a ditch. So far 

 so good ; especially as the old coachman now thought 

 he saw the Hero beaten. He marked a place therefore 

 in his m^ind's eye on the opposite rise where he might 

 pass her comfortably ; and when he came to the place 

 he had marked, he came with a rush. The old coach- 

 man's leaders, answering to the call gamely, were 

 already by the front wheels of the Hero, when what 

 happened ? Why the driver of the Hero suddenly 

 pulled his horses right across the old coachman's leaders' 

 heads ; who thus at the very moment that he thought 

 he was going to snatch a victory, found himself driven 

 up a bank. Fortunately no strap or trace, or buckle, was 

 broken by this extremely ungentlemanly manoeuvre, or 

 the old coachman would at the finish have been nowhere ; 

 but as it was he was never after able to get beyond the 

 hind boot of the Hero, who won therefore at the Dolphin 

 by a short length. 



Time — twenty minutes for the eight miles. 



Result of the race — three of the Hero's horses never 

 came out of the stables again, and a complaint to the 

 proprietors. 



There is not much to see in the town of Petersfield, 

 except the memories of old coaching days which linger 

 round the three inns, the Castle, now turned into a 

 private house, the Dolphin, the Red Lion, and the 

 White Hart. Two miles out of the town the Ports- 

 mouth Road passes Buriton, the home for some period 

 of Gibbon, on the left ; and then, assisted by a chalk 

 cutting, crosses Buster Hill, which is the highest of the 

 Southdowns, and commands everything from the spire 

 of Salisbury Cathedral to Chanctonbury Ring, a little 



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