FARMING AND FOXHUNTING 



business to look up my friend Metcalf to make a 

 deal, either for a rick of hay, or perhaps a field of 

 wheat to which he had taken a fancy to purchase 

 the straw. One could always be certain of a cash 

 transaction cemented in a glass of champagne. A 

 good friend to a poor farmer was he. 



What a memorable year was 191 1 ! A hot and 

 burning summer, about the middle of July the 

 Daily Mail offered a prize of £1,000 for the fastest 

 trip round the British Isles by air. Metcalf said 

 that we must have a look at this show. What 

 about a trip to Scotland by car just to see the 'planes 

 arrive and leave ? So off we went, and fortified with 

 a good dinner at King Edward Place, we arrived in 

 Oxford just on the stroke of twelve. Then on 

 again to Bedford, running through the town at 

 sunrise. Here we got the information that the 

 airmen had passed over some minutes earlier. How- 

 ever, nothing daunted, away we drove on the Great 

 North Road in hot pursuit. Up through York and 

 over the Border at Berwick, with no luck until we 

 arrived at Edinburgh about two o'clock the following 

 morning. 



On nearing Edinburgh I remember leaning out of 

 the car and enquiring whether we had reached the 

 city, and the reply I got was, " This ain't Edinburgh, 

 this is Musselborough." Well, eventually we did 

 arrive in Edinburgh and managed to get into an 

 hotel in Princes Street worn out and hungry. The 

 bar was full of information about the fliers who, 

 incidentally, were leaving next morning at a very 

 early hour. 



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