Many hares have set trails from the Avenue de Cagny, so you all know the terrain; yet Mother Brown managed to find paths that were variants on those we knew, teasing us with a sense of half-familiarity, so this was a distinct success. We were joined by six or so runners from North Hants, fitter and faster than we, yet towards the end those from Surrey no longer that quick did come upon a check which had yet to be solved (it was, like a fair few today, a back-check). So indeed was the last check, near the church of Pirbright, stuck in a field with what looked like a solution (in the wrong direction, Belcher and I followed it…) but was in fact just random blobs of flour which had fallen there.  I am not sure what became of Pink Pussy, today’s co-hare; she was not at the Circle for stand-ins as GM and RA to thank her. (J. Arthur and Uncle Gerry, since you ask).  So the hare had a double drink, which proved too much for him, a sight seldom seen at our Circles, where the drinks awarded to hares and sinners are parsimonious by historical standards.  But Mother Brown did do a high-stepping little dance.

  Plenty of sunshine, and good scenery: largely woodland, which is fine for Surrey.  Yes, occasionally on tarmac, but that must be unavoidable on a Pirbright trail.  I suspect we shall be seen here again.  Surrey are acquiring a new member, named Helen; no one has yet given her a handle, so until she acquires an official moniker, I propose “Ships”. You will all recognise the quotation from Marlowe’s Dr Faustus, which goes on “Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss”. Shakespeare had contemporaries as playwrights who in his absence would be much better known today.

  Unable to match the pace of real front runners, I am at least in a position to pay tribute to hashers who keep up well; today I select for mention First On, CL, and Mrs Robinson.  I thought myself successful if I could keep them in view and occasionally get near them.  A fast walk is quite enough when the checks are difficult enough to slow the speed merchants.  Not that we had that many of those today; I have not seen Kelinchi for weeks, nor Popeye for months.  Come back, all is forgiven! 

  Some of you may have watched the recent TV programme about corporal punishment, and will have reflected on your own experience.  I assume most of us were struck in our childhoods, at home or in school; and given our age, most will have smacked our own children.  My own mother abandoned any attempt to smack me when I was sent to a Jesuit school: they use a leather strap (a ferula) with a whalebone core to strengthen it. Punishments, on the hands, were a minimum of six, a maximum (very rarely used) of twice twelve.  The bruises lasted several days, while the pain at the time was intense.  I do not consider I was damaged by the ferula, but other boys may well have been.  Assumably the priests using it were warned of the dangers of sadism, but in secular schools there must have been sadistic teachers.  The campaign against corporal punishment found accusations of pleasure in punishment especially effective.  The problem of how to discipline children is of course still unresolved.  Exclusions are increasing: what solution are they for troubled teenagers?  Perhaps schools need a fundamental re-think.  Subjects which youngsters find genuinely relevant?

  On On, FRB