AROUND HAMPTON COURT 137 



matched. It seems only a day or two ago since 

 I was talking to Mr Scott, the stud groom of the 

 Royal establishment, on the day that Springfield 

 died, or when the boys held up and calmly went 

 over the whole big ferry-boat load of people 

 being taken across from Hampton Court to 

 Molesey Hurst on a Hampton Court race after- 

 noon. They were told to think themselves lucky 

 they weren't put into the water as well. What 

 an awful meeting that used to be ! The wonder 

 is that someone was not killed there every ten 

 minutes. Then there was — but I shall be accused 

 of falling into my anecdotage. 



Let us take the Mitre under another, a 

 summery aspect, and a very nice place to get to 

 Epsom from. To the useful plodder, I think no 

 better starting-point for the Downs can be desired 

 than Hampton Court. Many a time I have 

 tried it. If a body knows the route, no nicer plan 

 can be for a visitor from Northern parts to pitch 

 his tent at than the Mitre, best of hotels within 

 telegraphic reach of London^ — at least, one of the 

 best — and with a light heart and a thin or thick 

 pair of breeches, according to taste and the 

 wickedness or otherwise of the weather, go 

 merrily over the footpath way and ditto over the 

 stile-a by Tanner's bridge, which gives one of the 

 prettiest bits of Thames scenery, on across the 

 Mole and its understudy the Imber, by Imber 

 Court, adorned with an Inigo Jones house, which 

 looks as if it were built for suburban residential 

 purposes by an architect of metropolitan taste 

 and late Victorian period. Then cross to 

 Weston Green and the pond into which a late 

 amateur coachman quite frequently speeded his 

 parting guests, telling them to go on a dead 



