THE " HALFWAY HOUSE " 237 



from the crape mask and the black clothes he wore, and 

 from the black mare he rode. Not a pleasant fellow 

 to meet 



On the lone bleak moor at the midnight hour. 

 Beneath the gallows tree ; 



but almost preferable to the spectre horseman who 

 led a foreign traveller out of his way on these Downs. 

 Night had come on, overtaking a party of mounted 

 travellers making for Dover, and so dark had it 

 grown that they soon became separated. However, 

 the hindmost party dimly perceived two cavaliers in 

 front, and spurred towards them ; but when the horses' 

 hoofs in advance flashed fire and their riders were 

 seen to grow strangely luminous, these pixie-led 

 travellers thought it time to turn back. It was time 

 they did so, for already their horses were sinking in 

 a bog, and as they turned they heard the rest of their 

 party blowing their horns in quite another direction. 

 Possibly they turned in at the " Halfway House " 

 that stands away back from the road behind a screen 

 of trees, just past the eighth milestone ; both to take 

 something to enliven their spirits withal and to tell 

 the landlord of these strange happenings. If they 

 did, I have no doubt that they saw stranger sights 

 still when they came forth, when the earth would 

 rise up and smite them in the face, and the swinging 

 sign of the " Halfway House " would perform a 

 somersault over the constellations. For they dealt 

 in strange and curious liquors here in the days of 

 old ; spirits that had never paid tribute to the Excise, 

 and were ever so many degrees over-proof, made the 

 heart of man glad and his legs to tie themselves into 

 Gordian knots. You cannot get so immediately and 

 incapably drunk nowadays at the " Halfway House," 

 and 'tis better so, but I have seen the place drunk 

 dry in the space of an hour by thirsty Volunteers 

 marching from London to Dover at Eastertide. 

 When they had gone, it was as hopeless to call for a 

 draught of ale as I imagine it would have been to ask 



