78 SAM DARLING'S REMINISCENCES 



menagerie, with all kinds of wild animals, not very 

 securely fenced in. After inspectinff 



Captain *^ . . 



Bagot the estate of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, Captain 

 the^ag-° Bagot Chester motored us round Wyn- 



gressive berg, and as the car slowed up through 

 Dutchman . . r & 



a village a big Dutchman rushed out, 



with a long fork in his hand, and struck the car 



close to my back. I only just escaped. I said to 



the Captain : 



" What's the meaning of this ? " 



" Well," said he, " just now they don't like the 

 English." 



When we got to Wynberg we were having a look 

 round where a certain ditch was pointed out to me, 

 which had, previous to the war, contained a very 

 large number of rifles, buried there by the Boers in 

 readiness for an attack on the troops landing. 

 These were found by a man when taking a walk 

 with his dog. The dog started to scratch on the 

 ditch, and the man saw something shining. He at 

 once disturbed the surface, and found what the 

 ditch contained, viz. a large number of rifles. 



The country itself was extremely pleasant, 

 though at times the heat was rather trying. 



I was staying only a very short time in the 

 country, for I felt the call of Beckhampton all the 

 while ; but on February 4, 1902, I made yet 

 another expedition to see what I could of training 



