Part 24 (1/2)

So Mr Verdant Green and his friend walked into Holywell Street, and passed under the archway up to Symonds' stables But the nervous trepidation which our hero had felt in the same place on a previous occasion returned with full force when his horse was led out in an exuberantly playful and ”fresh” condition The beast he had bestridden during his long vacation rides, with his sister and his (and sister's) friend, was a cob-like steed, whose placidity of teravity of de over a five-bar gate as he would of kicking up his respectable heels both behind and before in the low-lived manner recorded of the Ethiopian ”Old Joe” But, if ”Charley Sy kind, it is highly probable that Mr C S and his stud would not have acquired that popularity which they had deservedly achieved For it seeeneral showiness of exterior, itand rough treatment in the course of the day which its ~pro-te an axiom which has obtained, as well in Universities as in other places, that it is of no advantage to hire a hack unless you get out of him as much as you can for your money; you won't want to use hi him to-day

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 165]

But, all this tiloves, in the nervous h the sa the conversational spas out the exuberantly playful quadruped on whose back Mr Verdant Green is to disport himself; Charles Larkyns is htly on the perspective of the <vg165jpg> yard and stables, and the tower of New College; the dark archway gives one a peep of Holywell Street; while the cold blue sky is flecked with gleaeons

At last, Mr Verdant Green has scra cautiously down the yard, while his heart beats in an alar alarum-like way As they ride under the archway, there, in the little roo his particular tanderoup of some two score of similar whips kept there in readiness for their respective owners

”Charley, you're a beast!” says Mr Fosbrooke, politely addressing himself to Mr Larkyns; ”I wanted Bouncer to codon, and I find that the little ed to you” Upon which, Mr Fosbrooke playfully raising his tandem-whip, Mr Verdant Green's horse

[166 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

plunges, and brings his rider's head into concussion with the laatehereupon, the hat falls off, and our hero is within an ace of following his hat's example

By a powerful exertion, however, he recovers his proper <vg166jpg> position in the saddle, and proceeds in an agitated and jolted condition, by Charles Larkyns's side, down Holywell Street, past the Music Rooe

Here they are soon joined by Mr Bouncer,to the custom of small men, on one of Tollitt's tallest horses, of ever-so-ot radually returns, and he rides on with his conificent distant view of his University When they have passed Cowley, so fences areunable to resist their fascinations, put their horses at the kind of hile an excited agriculturist, whose snation, pours down denunciations on their heads

”Blow that bucolical party!” says Mr Bouncer; ”he's no right to interfere with the enjoyments of the animals If they break the fences, it ain't their faults; it's the fault of the farh to bear thee! he'll take you over as easy as if you were sitting in an arm-chair”

But Mr Verdant Green has doubts about the perfor that the ar one, he is fir powers of his steed to the test But having, afterwards, obtained so powder” at a certain small road-side hostelry to which Mr Bouncer has piloted the party, our hero, on his way back to Oxford, screws up his courage sufficiently to gallop his steed desperately at a ditch which yawns, a foot wide, before hiust - the obtuse-ives a leap which would have taken hi prepared for this very needless

---Now used for the Museum of the Oxford Architectural Society

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 167]

display of agility, flies off the saddle at a tangent, and finds that his ”vaulting ambition” had o'erleap'd itself, and fallen on the other side - of the ditch

”It ain't your fault, Giglaalloped after Verdant's steed, and has led it up to hi167jpg> the least hurt; but has only broken - his glasses; ”it ain't your fault, Giglamps, old feller! it's the clumsiness of the hack He tossed you up, and couldn't catch you again!”

And so our hero rides back to Oxford But, before the Term has ended, he has become more accustomed to Oxford hacks, and has made himself acquainted with the respective ; and has, , and, in this way, hunted the fabled foxes of Bagley Wood, and Whichwood Forest

CHAPTER VI

MR VERDANT GREEN FEATHERS HIS OARS WITH SKILL AND DEXTERITY

NOVEMBER is not always theand mist and dulness

Oftentienerally-received rule of depressing weather which, in this hbours), induces the natives of our English e of Waterloo There are in November, days of calm beauty, which are peculiar to that month - that kind of calm beauty which is so often seen as the herald of decay

But, whatever weather the loom or despondency to Oxford s, and can always create their own amusements; they crown Minerva with floithout

[168 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

heeding her influenza, and never seem to think that the rosy-bosomed Hours may be laid up with bronchitis Winter and su and recreation go hand-in-hand all the year round; and, a finds as many votaries in cold Nove168jpg> the air, in the forenerates to hard labour in the dog-days

The classic Isis in thelike favourable, presents an ani, thethe ti dip in the water; perilous skiffs flit like fire-flies over the glassy surface of the river; ether at King's, or Hall's, and industriously pro Although the feet of the strollers in the Christ Church h the sere and yellow leaf, yet richupon the