A DAY WITH THE DRAG 213 



ing his wicked will with the place since last we 

 saw it ! The trots out to the several meets set 

 longer and longer as season after season rolls by. 

 What was once almost our best line, and where for 

 two or three years the annual point-to-point race was 

 held, is now an unwieldy mass of buildings, pro- 

 minent amongst which stands that gigantic fraud on 

 the long-suffering ratepayers, the Fever Hospital, 

 with its staff of 350 to wait on a maximum of 450 

 patients ! 



At last we emerge from the region of building 

 and railway " enterprise" (save the mark !) and see 

 glimpses of the country ahead of us. A winding 

 lane traversed, and we find a gate propped open on 

 our left : here a halt is called. The Master rides 

 into the field, whilst the Whips remain where they 

 are in charge of the pack. Two minutes later our 

 worthy chief returns and addresses the assembled 

 company, not in the studied beauty of language 

 employed by Cicero, nor in the perfervid oratory of 

 Demosthenes, but in a manner very much more to 

 the point than most of the harangues of those some- 

 what long-winded classics. " Let 'em get over the 

 first fence : then you can ride like blazes ! " he 

 says. 



The Whips move forward gently : hounds are all 

 bristling with excitement, for they seem to know as 



