AROUND EPSOM AND LEATHERHEAD 163 



I could educate my vision so as to take in the 

 objects of interest that make so much amusement 

 for me. Try as I will, I seem to miss an awful 

 lot progressing at the rate of a mile in three 

 minutes ; but, then, I dare say a very great many 

 do not care a tinker's cuss for the small beer and 

 small potatoes in beast, bird, vegetable, insect, 

 and reptile life. 



I had one turn at high speed. We only did 

 nineteen miles in eleven minutes downhill on a 

 narrow road and a Bank Holiday, and I fear I 

 discredited the cloth in describing my sensations 

 to the kindly chauffeur-host who took me out to 

 give me a treat. He asked how I felt. Really I 

 meant no offence in likening myself, and by con- 

 sequence him — I had forgotten that — to a 

 member of the herd of swine rushing violently 

 down a steep place, with acute preference for 

 going into the sea if we went into anything. In 

 the sea you might have a chance by swimming, 

 but otherwise touching meant going. 



Cannot something be done to alter the system 

 of carriage illumination ? I will not describe the 

 up-to-date lamplight as too brilliant^ — scarcely 

 can that pitch of intensity be reached. Theoreti- 

 cally and practically, no light can be too good for 

 distribution. Where the trouble comes is, like 

 the Bunsbyan philosophy, in the application of 

 it. Will not some firm of opticians, lampmakers, 

 inventors, or manufacturers take the job in hand 

 and bring out a lamp to lighten up the road with- 

 out blinding wayfarers ? A splendid creation, 

 to my mind, is a big motor-car, with its cleverly 

 devised appointments, carrying a certain touch of 

 ocean-going trimness and tautness about it, an 

 idea suggested, perhaps, by its lights. By day I 



