THE CRICK RUN 137 



he did, for I should not have got there otherwise. I had 

 now reached Rugby, but it is a "long unlovely street " 

 down which you finish the Crick, and people come out and 

 look at you so that you must make some sort of show 

 " a trot for the avenue." How I did that I know not, 

 but I did, and when I saw the lamp-post which I took to 

 be the finish I made one supreme effort to get there in 

 decent style. Then came the awful discovery that not 

 this lamp-post but the next was the finish ! It seemed 

 miles from one to the other, but fellows ran alongside 

 I remember seeing Warner among them and shouted 

 encouragement, so I got there, practically blind. 



Someone gave me a drink of whisky, which was a boon 

 indeed, and just in the nick of time. I recovered within 

 ten minutes, and found that after all Dugdale had not 

 finished two minutes in front of me. 



We did respectable time, about i hour 25 minutes, 

 and the hounds were badly beaten; though not quite so 

 badly as Bulpett had anticipated. 



I always have felt that I ought to have had another 

 try at the Crick when in proper condition. It was, of 

 course, madness to run it so soon after the Harborough 

 Magna as I did, and presumably in these more coddling 

 days no boy would be allowed to try himself out hi such 

 a fashion, but it happened in my day just as I have written. 



