376 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



yards to the left, surely a gateway that I have seen before. 

 Some memory at all events flashes through my startled 

 brain as Mr. Griswold dashes at the breach. Breach, 

 good heavens ! 'tis the selfsame set of draw-rails over 

 wJiich they contrived to lead us two years ago from out of 

 Titus's classic pastures. They looked, I remember, ghastly 

 then. But surely they have grown in the interim. A 

 hog-backed rail now surmounts the too-sufficient barway 

 of that time, and Mr. Griswold is just spinning over the 

 lot, at a pace rather increased than diminished, Sweetheart 

 rising at about the angle at which a bear would climb a 

 tree. I see no use in shutting my eyes, I haven't the 

 nerve to pull up and go home ; but I can't help praying 

 that the little mare's stride may be right and true — another 

 moment we are over what I deemed a hopeless impossi- 

 bility ; and a grateful blessing leaves my lips for Brunette's 

 kindly owner. A phase of high farming possibly ; but, 

 whether or no, this extra rail has, I am told, been quite 

 recently added to most of the fences of this particular 

 district. (And, by-the-bye, I am promised the measure- 

 ment of these particular draw-rails ; so will commit 

 myself to no premature estimate.^) 



Soon another road and another brief check (twenty 

 minutes to this, and under a still blazing sun). The Old 

 Westbury post-office stood here, as we had leisure to see, 

 while hounds were carried down the road and we waited 

 to take our turn at some low rails into the highway. The 

 heat, the pace, and the occasional soft soil of the lately 

 stripped cornfields had begun to tell on horses now for 

 the first time called upon to gallop. A white lather was 

 the token with some, a certain carelessness at the smaller 

 fences with others. Had that road been stoned, I know 

 well where one set of broken knees would have been 

 earned, while a feat of retrograde climbing (hand over 

 hand, from ground to bridle, bridle to mane, mane to 

 saddle) was being enacted that would have done more than 

 credit to Aldershot's gymnasium or Canterbury's riding- 

 school. 



1 The fence was measured by Mr. Griswold as 5 feet 4 inches in height. The 

 rail being roached, the actual jump was 5 feet 6 inches. 



