DAWN ON BOX HILL.

AS we rode down the gentle eastern slope of lisnmore Common we noticed that we could see our horses' ears. The statement seems commonplace, but for the last two hours we had mostly taken not only our horses' ears but our horses' heads on trust. In the wooded bridle-ways on the summit of the North Downs it is pitch dark even on the night before the summer solstice. We had had two hours of such bridle' paths, with only an occasional" bald" piece of Down where the stars and the open vault of sky made it poseible to see the man in front and the man behind in the column. We left Reamers Church a few minutes past 1.30, and by twenty minutes to two there was no mistake as to the coming of the dawn. Already we were beginning to note that common but always deeply moving miracle—the paling of the stars in the sky. Already the best-marked features of the landscape were beginning to emerge. Across the valley Box Hill loomed up like a headland pushing out into the sea. Against the faint indeterminate pearl of the sky, the very tint of a Quakeress's dress, the rough shoulder of the hill, not unlike that of a truncated Gibraltar, stood out in sable—a rusty black, not a deep black like the blacks of sunset. The vision of our goal was only for a moment allowed. Soon we were once more in the darkness and mystery of the woods, and once more intent on dodging projecting boughs or avoiding deviations to the right or left, and therefore with no eyes for the landscape. even if it had been visible through gaps. When, however, we emerged from these last ten minutes of woodland there was no mistake about the light. The great hedge at Camilla Lacy showed up quite clearly, though one could not say offhand whether it were box or holly. The short halt at Burford Bridge at last exhibited the column whioh at the start and for the past two and a half hours had been taken on trust, or its existence only proved hy the passing of words of command down its length. As we moved up the long green roller of the Down opposite George Meredith's summer-housa the Guides were clear enough as to form, though colours were invisible. At that time no man could have said whether their uniforms were green or khaki or grey. By 2.30 we had reached the little green to the east of the fort, a green of some five or six acres, dead flat and surrounded by box-trees, oaks, ashes, and thorns. This Was our goal, "the highest point of Box Hill," and we had reached it exactly at the hour laid down in our time-table.

All lovers of the Surrey Downs will remember that the green is open to the south, a hollow square of woodland. The open side affords a view, a little commonplace perhaps tit the full glare of day owing to the growth of Dorking's red roofs, but touched by magic in the morning light. Presently up the steep mountain path to the south, and through the woodlands to the east, north, and west, came stealing—all men seem to steal or move softly and catlike in the dawn— small parties of mounted Guides and the files of the Volun- teers who were to take part in the dawn inspection. The Volunteers were from comparatively close at hand. The Guides were from every part of the county, from the Berkshire, Hampshire, and Middlesex borders, from the vicinage of Kent and Sasses and London. Take a pair of compasses and a map and you will find that a twelve-mile radius from the highest point of Box Hill includes the whole of rural Surrey. It is the centre of the county. As a general point of assembly it gives less travelling for the greatest number than any other point that can be fixed on the map. The parade and inspection of the Guides was ordered for 3.30, and at 3 o'clock the little green was alive with mounted and unmounted men, and at a quarter-past three the light was good enough to show the green coats and green cape of the Guides and the red brasearde of the Volunteers.

Before the sunrise parade i. described it may be as well to set forth first the Order for the inspection, and next the Marching Orden' of the column to which the present writer was attached

"THE SURREY GUIDES.

AN/max INSPECTION, SUNDAY, JUNN 20m, 1016, To Divisional Guides (I) The Annual Inspection of the Surrey Guides will take place on the morning of Sunday, June 29th, at dawn (3.30 a.m.), place of rendezvous—the highest point of Box Hill.

(2) The object of the Chief Guide in ordering the inspection at dawn is to test the capacity of the mounted Guides to assemble at a central point by means of a night ride. The Guides will move by lanes, bridle roads, and cross-country paths—metalled reads only being used where absolutely necessary.

(3) Divisional Guides, in consultation with District Guides, will make any arrangements they may think fit for getting their mounted meats the point of rendezvous by 3.30 a.m.

(4) In order to teat the mobility of the Guides under night conditions no Guide is to start earlier than 11 o'clock on the Saturday evening without the special leave of the Chief Guide.

(5) Unmounted Guides will be welcome at the rendezvous, but are not expected to attend unless they live within walking distance of Box 11111

(6) The object of the Inspection is a test ride for mounted Guide.. Later on arrangements will be made for the inspection of the Foot Guides within their own districts.

(7) Guides possessed of motor cycles or ordinary cycles will be able to take part in the proceedings. They should, as far as possible, test their freedom of movement by refraining from using the ordinary high roads.

(8) No electric torches or other lights are to be used by mounted Guides, except in order to examine tracks or take special observa- tons of the route, and even in these cases sparingly.

(9) Divisional Guides will inform the Chief Guide on or before Thursday, June 10th, from what places they intend to start, and at what hour on Saturday, June 19th. The Chief Guide requires this information in order that he may arrange that Guides from distant parts of the county (who have no intimate knowledge of the locality) may attach themselves to parties led by the Divisional Guides; of the Divisions bordering on Box Rill.

(10) The Chief Guide will leave Newlands Corner at 11.20 p.m. OD Saturday, June 19th.

(11) Divisional Guides will communicate these Orders without delay to their District Guides, who will in turn inform their local Guides.

Key 2518, 1915. CHIMP Gums."

"MARCHING ORDERS FOR CH1EP GUIDE'S COLUMN. Column will leave the following Special Points at hours Aimed :— (1) Newland. Corner 11.80 p.m.

(2) Green Cross Roads, top of Coombe Bottom 12.10 am.

(8) West End of Lady's Mile 12.45 a.m. 1.10 a.m. 1.80 a.m. 2.0 aan. 2.80 a.m.

Gahm or Manch—Column will proceed in single Ste, and Guides will not let distance between Guides be more than four feet. Chief Guide will guide to Ranmore Church (Point 5), whence guiding will be undertaken by 6th Division.

Column will proceed in following order (1) Chief Guide.

(2) Chief Guide's Orderly.

(8) Military Guests of Chief Guide, and Scout Orderly in attendance on Military Gueete.

(4) Guides of 7th Division.

(6) Guides of 6th Division.

(6) Rear Guard, The Rear Guard will see that no members stray out of the line er fail to keep up with the Column. The two Divisional Guides and the Guide commanding the Rear Guard will immediately on arrival at the special points report to the Chief Guide that their eommande are intuit.

June 161h, 1915. CHIEF Grata."

(5) Sarunore Road, opposite Church ...

(8) Burford Bridge ...

(7) Box Hill Summit, Green East of Fort ...

At 3.30 the Guides and the Volunteers who had come to support the Guides at the inspection were drawn up in a hollow square. The inspecting officer, a Colonel whose experience of cavalry—regular and irregular—had been learnt in Indian field., passed down the line of green coats and said • word of kindly greeting and encouragement to the men who were doing their best to train themselves in such a way that their gift of intimate topographical knowledge, gained for the most part in the hunting field or on the farm, should be available to the military authorities, and thus become part of that national service which we all owe to our country. Then the Guides went by the inspecting point, first at the walk, then at the trot, and lastly at the gallop. Finally the Volunteers marched past in a way which proved how keenly they had trained themselves, and how determined they were not to play at, but to be soldiers. Many of them bad only joined a month or six weeks before, but in spite of that they obeyed the word of command with an alertness and a certainty which were quite admirable. Give them rifles and they would be equal to any newly raised Landaturm force in the world. We must not, however, deviate into militarism. The intention of this article is rather to deal with the beauties of dawn on Box Hill and the hushed charm of night riding than with considerations as to the value of guiding and so forth— considerations of which the readers of the Spectator have already bad plenty. Night riding in the winter, if one's coat I. only thick enough, has a great charm, but undoubtedly there is an added delight in moving through the scented nights of midsummer, nights when fleecy clouds of mint cling

to the floors of the valleys and make one recall how in the ballad the Elfin King bore off the maiden "I cached her on a misty night When summer was in prime."

The solitude of the wooded tops of the Downs adds greatly to the fascination of night riding. For example, in the twelve or thirteen miles of riding on the North Downs here described not a human being except those taking part in the ride was seen, and only one or two lonely houses passed. In not one of those was a light shown. Yet the inhabitants must surely have heard the beat of our horses' hoofs—the ground was as hard as iron—and also the jingling of our eurb.ohains as our horses tossed their heads. Curiously enough, also, on the short spaces of high road which were crossed, amounting in all to a mile and a half or two miles, not a motor-car was encountered.

The country between midnight and the dawn seemed an absolute desert, and yet the greatest city in the world with its six millions of population lay, as the crow flies, only twenty miles to the north-east That the Guides were moved by the mysterious and yet stern beauty of the night and the fascination of its loneliness is certain. You will never get together any body of Englishmen whose spirits are not finely touched to fine issues. Some, too, may have been stimulated—most Englishmen are antiquarians at heart—by the thought that the track which they followed is probably the oldest thing in England. It was once the " Tin-Way " of the Phoenicians, that great and ancient path on the top of the Downs which has been called in turn the Western Road, the Tin-Way, the Pilgrims' Road, and the Drove Road. All the Kings and soldiers used it in tern, as the Guides were using it on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and to all it has given a dry road and a sound road "at requiring." Yet no man has ever attempted to improve it or to do any- thing to it, except, perhaps, to break a branch or out off a bough that was too obstructive. The track is as near a work of Nature, or, at any rate, of unconscious art, as anything in these islands.