AND DEMERITS OF THE MOTOR-CAR 31 



you that, market-day though it be, you never saw 

 so much traffic on this part of the King's highway 

 before. At last you meet a friend, the local postman, 

 and hail him : " Hounds far in front ? " " On a long 

 way," he replies, " and a power of traps." Cheering 

 news this, and what a road to make up time on — 

 confound the stones ! 



At last the fixture is in sight, and from a long 

 distance you can discern four horses, but no others. 

 The whip is applied now pretty vigorously, regardless 

 of the stony road, and it is something, you think, as 

 you hail your groom, to be able to talk again to a 

 human being whose speech you know. To your 

 anxious inquiries as to the first draw he gives satis- 

 factory replies, having had the good sense, not to 

 say hardihood, to inquire of the M.F.H. himself. 

 Furzingfield Gorse ! There is a good grass siding to 

 the road, and don't you make use of it ! Has the 

 sun come out ? Anyhow, the world seems brighter 

 now as you canter along, the horse snorting and 

 shaking his head as he tries to make a canter a 

 gallop, and at the next turn you see away in front 

 of you a parti-coloured mass that blocks the road, 

 scarlet, black, and white, and nearer to you a long 

 line of vehicles, which are speedily overtaken. Your 

 troubles are over for the time. 



Perhaps others would not have felt the miseries of 

 this drive in the manner that they came home to 

 myself, who may be over-sensitive to affliction where 

 fox-hunting is concerned, but the idea of being late 

 for a meet has always been a real misery to me. In 

 the days of my youthhood, when winter holidays and 



