6 KINGSCLERE 



go to jail. God bless you ! Do all you can for me. 

 I must have the 5/. somehow or other.' 



To resume the narrative. John Porter's school- 

 days furnish few stories of boyish scrapes and 

 adventures. It was 'horses' from the beginning, 

 albeit none of his remembrances of the nobler animal 

 have displaced from his mind's eye a certain quaint 

 old donkey which he and Tom Ashmall used to ride 

 along a gravel path ; never, however, without being 

 rubbed off against a wall or a grindstone — answering 

 to the starting and winning posts — during the up- 

 roarious operation. Morland might have painted pic- 

 tures from Porter's vivid recollections of the besom- 

 makers from Cannock Chase, with the ' lengths of 

 ling' packed round the donkeys' bodies, and the 

 charcoal-burners who followed their calling in the 

 same neighbourhood. These pictorial memories, 

 with the wonderful 'echo tree,' the overwhelming of 

 the wall of Hagley Park by a mighty flood which is 

 a fearsome tradition in those parts to this day — a 

 catastrophe, already referred to, which occurred but 

 a few minutes after John had passed the spot on 

 his way from school — comprise all the reflections of 

 incidents which at this distant period colour the 

 remembrance of those happy days. 



Shortly after he left school for good and all a 

 step was taken which was remarkable for starting 

 him in what proved to be the business of his active 

 life. Saunders (who trained for Palmer) had suc- 

 ceeded Carr, and the Porters' business bringing 

 young John into closer connection with the stable, 



