CONCERNING PATEY 135 



at the races :" Hayman, however, took no notice of this 

 except to say : " You had better distinguish between the 

 words, 'absent ' and 'late,' "and nothing further transpired 

 except that Patey was evidently very much annoyed. 



Some weeks afterwards the Doctor said to me : "I 

 think it might be well if you were to send your dogs home 

 at your convenience." A " convenient " period did not 

 come until the end of the term. 



In that spring of 1870 I discovered that I could run long 

 distances rather well. It was a complete surprise, for 

 when overgrown and weak at the private school I had been 

 hopelessly incapable of doing anything of the sort, and 

 I have often thought how many two-year-olds must have 

 been turned out of training though they would have made 

 good horses if given time to develop. 



Anyhow, after a preliminary trial in a House run which 

 didnot trouble me in the slightest, I essayedthe Harborough 

 Magna run, a distance of about nine miles, and came in first 

 by thirty seconds, with the greatest ease. Pride, however, 

 went before a fall, for in the same week, only three days 

 later, I consented to run as one of the hares in our House 

 Crick., having, during one of the days gone over the course 

 with F. S. Holden, so as to be quite sure about its every 

 detail. 



Now the Crick run is decidedly formidable. The 

 distance is about thirteen miles, the last five of which 

 are on the road and known as " the spurt." Certainly 

 it is not a run to take on when you are stale, as I must 

 have been that day, after the Harborough Magna. My 

 fellow-hare was John Marshall Dugdale, who later on 

 became so well known in the agricultural world and was 

 famous as a football player. He was a good runner, 

 and very fit and fresh, not having taken part in the 

 Harborough Magna. Well, we made the best of our 

 way across country, never taking a pull except to get 

 over fences, until finally we reached the road and pre- 

 sently had compassed two miles of that say eleven 

 miles in all and then I began to feel as if for me the end 



