AROUND EPSOM AND LEATHERHEAD 165 



not a gun, do not have all the best of the argu- 

 ment, because a-many fearful fowl and other 

 curiosities are brought down by the gunner. I 

 fixed up two or three curious specimens on 

 Christmas Day. Possibly number one would 

 not be a rarity to gents in one particular fancy 

 line — i.e., donkey keeping and breeding. Dead 

 donkeys are, in accordance with the proverb, 

 seldom on view, though the fact that you can 

 buy all the skins you want at about a dollar 

 apiece proves that somebody must see them 

 sooner or later. The well-groomed moke, as 

 proud of himself as his master is of the creature, 

 is to me a thing of beauty and of joy. I have 

 always coveted some of these, but never attained 

 the distinction of ownership in a willing speci- 

 men. Now, what do you think I came across in 

 the way of donkeys ? A nice little fellow, well- 

 done, fat and sleek, and with string halt in front, 

 pretty near as pronounced as Memoir's. I have 

 heard dealers, in praising a horse's high action, 

 chaffingly liken it to string halt all round. This 

 one had it in front, and very rum he looked. In 

 another strange discovery I was rather the 

 discoveree than the discoverer, for only by 

 decimals of inches did I miss being dis- 

 covered in the back by a cyclist's tyre, he, his 

 partner in bad watermanship on the road, and my- 

 self all being within about a yard of the off-edge of 

 the road. They were a mile out of Leatherhead, 

 not going above fifteen miles an hour, so were, 

 they stated, perfectly justified in not ringing the 

 bell till they were in touch of me. Nowadays 

 you expect even holiday cyclists to know the near 

 side of the road from the off without tying a hay- 

 band on one wrist and a straw-band on the other. 



