JACK LEARNS A LESSON 359 



of overtaking us, and he had now lost nearly an hour alto- 

 gether, it was manifestly useless to ride after him, and we 

 therefore continued on towards Ongar Park Hall, leaving Jack 

 to take his chance of dropping in with us or picking up informa- 

 tion on the road which, added to what he had heard yesterday 

 when with Beckinoton at the " Kinof William " miy-ht enable him 

 to reach the fixture. I may here add at once that he rode, by 

 his own estimate, about thirty miles about the country, and 

 returned to Blackmore about two o'clock without having met us 

 or gone to the " King William " and learned thus a lesson about 

 keeping engagements which I could not regret. It was no 

 doubt a severe disappointment, and will, I trust, do him more 

 good than a dozen lectures. I therefore continued with 

 Beckington to Ongar Park Hall, going by vStondon, Chipping 

 Onoar and Greensted, and on reachino- it found that Stallibrass 

 had gone to Mr. Cure's, but fortunately before following him 

 discovered that he had been directed to the house of the father 

 instead of the son, and that the latter John Stallibrass lived at 

 Hastinowood Common four miles oft. 



" Misfortunes never come singly," I thought, as I rode towards 

 the latter place and reflected on the loss of time and extra 

 distance which we had covered, and when we reached John 

 Stallibrass's house and found that the " King William " was after 

 all the fixture, that it was a quarter past eleven, that Stallibrass 

 had been gone more than an hour, and that it was a long ten 

 miles, I almost gave up the hope of ever seeing hounds. And 

 while reflecting on the beauty of the morning, the capital state 

 of the ground for riding and scent, and the magnificent country 

 in which the stag was to be uncarted, I blessed my ill-luck and 

 felt not over amiably disposed towards Jack, who had been the 

 cause of the loss of an all-important hour in the morning, but 

 nevertheless rode briskly on to Leaden Roothing by way of 

 High Laver, Matching Green and White Roothing, trusting to 

 the time generally consumed in guzzling and gutting when a 

 deer is to be uncarted to a scratch pack. 



At White Roothing, to my infinite relief, we met Mr. 

 Garland, Jim Bean (the steeplechase rider) and other worthies 

 connected with the Plnchley Stag Hounds, and learned that 

 the deer cart and hounds were behind and that one o'clock was 

 the hour. Thus, after a series of ill-luck we reached the fixture 

 in time, but with the penalty for the poor horses of having gone 

 nearly 25 miles on the road at a brisk pace instead of an easy 

 eight miles over the fields. The vexation made me quite 

 nervous, for having to jump a stiffish fence between Chipping 



