132 Silk and Scarlet. 



ing" behind Reliance and Chabron, till, as Jem Hills 

 observes to Jack Goddard, " They ve given him a riftg 

 romid the top of the park',' and then coming home 

 alone and pulling up at the Chapel so fresh, that every 

 one (bar Jim, who " got beat with Centaur at Pet- 

 worth"), down to the boiler, becomes firm in their 

 allegiance, and piles crown after crown on to his 

 head. 



Danebu "^"^ Hampshire beckons us back, on a 



fine October morning, and kicking up 

 hare after hare in our route, we are at last at the 

 summit of Vicar's Cross. Behind us lies Clatford Oak 

 Cuts, the scene of many a rare run, but few so fast as 

 the twenty-two minutes without a check, on grass, 

 from Chislingbury Gorse, straight away to Assheton 

 Copse, in which Mr. Smith on his grey (i), Desperate 

 (William Sadler) (2), and Laura (John Day, junior) 

 (3), were with Mr. Rowdon (who had to bleed his 

 horse), almost the only ones placed. Danebury Hill 

 is on the right, under whose shade Bay Middleton and 

 Crucifix dwelt so long ; and just beneath it is Nock- 

 wood, whose fox broke one day the moment Mr. 

 Smith crossed the ditch to draw, and going like a 

 second Themistocles, nine miles to Tedworth, made a 

 spread eagle of nearly two hundred over the Kimpton 

 meadows. They found also in that little fir belt, or 

 Sadler's Plantation, within a stone's throw of the 

 quiet little race-course, which there leaves the valley, 

 and stretches away, dimly marked by white posts, into 

 the wider expanse of Sadler's Down. The Stand 

 railings, within which, on the Ignoranms v. Anton day, 

 " The Squire," with Tom Sebright, George Carter, 

 and Will Long as his audience, delivered his last 

 great lecture on the Furrier bitches, are put away till 

 another June comes round ; and John Day's black 

 watch-dog, that terror to touts, wanders lazily about 

 the spot, now that his morning patrol with the horses 

 is ended. 



