332 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [vil

 

best part of the race was to be seen. Some would
like to see the start, and run behind the competitors
as far as they could. Some preferred to witness one
jump, some another, and the majority gathered in
‘the Field, where was the winning-post—for, although
the place of the start was varied from year to year
according to the state of the ground, or the fancy of
those to whom fell the duty of arranging the course,
the School Steeple-chase would not have been the real
thing at all unless the last jump had been the old
‘school jump’ over Chalvey, and the winning post in
‘the Field,’ hallowed by the memory of many a hard-
fought football match, and dear to the heart of every
Etonian.

Upon the present occasion the start was in the
Datchet direction, and after a two-mile circuit over
a line of country by no means light, the Slough road
had to be crossed, and the last half mile was straight
to the wirining-post. It was a trying course, and only
about fourteen boys had entered for it, young heroes
all of them, prepared to face the ordeal with un-
daunted courage. As the day of the race drew near,
however, several had dropped out of the list from one
reason or another: a sprained ankle had incapacitated
one, a hasty summons home had caused another’s
absence, and perhaps one or two more had judged their
chance too small to make it worth their while to run.

However that may have been, it is certain that |
upon the appointed day only nine came to the scratch,
between whom the hopes and fears of their brother
Etonians were divided. Of these there were five
fellows who may be said to have been decidedly the