WILTS AND HORSES 321 



might take your route and your chance. Appar- 

 ently, in their calculations, you can reach any- 

 where if you only keep on long enough. A flat 

 bit of board with ** To Something or Somewhere " 

 is nailed on a post, but whether you are to go on 

 or back is left unstated. The shortest plan is to 

 start off and peg away till you get somewhere 

 to make inquiries. 



We have classical authority for the efficacy of 

 making believe a good deal, as witness the 

 Marchioness, afterwards Mrs Richard Swiveller, 

 and the manufacture of negus out of orange peel 

 and cold water — a concoction grateful, warming, 

 and comforting provided you persuade yourself 

 that the base imitation is the real genuine article. 

 I tried very hard one day on Salisbury Plain in 

 mid- March making believe that I was taking in 

 all the joys of open downland. When the sun is 

 on your back and, metaphorically speaking, patting 

 all animal, insect, and vegetable life on their backs, 

 setting them going, so to speak, keeping them at 

 it, and presenting everything in a kindly light 

 and doing its best to be all alive and interesting, 

 the open uplands are hard to beat. Up on the 

 great downland where I happened to be, a little 

 bit of sun makes a world of difference. I never 

 can quite make out where Salisbury Plain begins 

 and ends. I do know that it does not go farther 

 one way than the break before you get to Marl- 

 borough. Getting down on the Dorsetshire side 

 it seems to me that, though you may call the 

 territory by any other name, it is the same old 

 plain ; and if there is one particular tract in 

 England where a touch of sun makes a strong 

 difference, you can find it up in that direction. 

 I had heard so much about Sir Charles Nugent's 



X 



