Tristan’s car crashes into the golf club pavilion during a return journey across the steep fields of the Dales, turning an apparently relaxed trip home into a collision that wrecks a building but leaves the car running. The scene’s danger lies not only in the runaway Austin: it arrives just two weeks after Tristan has wrecked another car and been dismissed by Siegfried Farnon. A farmer’s unexpected willingness to conceal the damage offers Tristan a reprieve from the consequences he fears.

The return journey and its false calm

The incident begins at the last gate on an isolated farm, far below the main road. There is no road to the farm, not even a track; the route out crosses fields from gate to gate. James Herriot gets out to open the gate while Tristan, who is driving, remains beside the car. Herriot is travelling with his left hand infected after a bad calving and his arm in a sling, which explains why Tristan has taken the wheel.

The pair have had a successful visit. Tristan removed warts from a heifer’s teats, and the farmer praised how well he was doing for a young practitioner. Because of the heat, he offered the visitors beer; Tristan drank his with such evident enthusiasm that the farmer gave him a second bottle. Sun, beer, and a cigarette have made the wait at the gate feel pleasantly unhurried. Tristan closes his eyes to enjoy the warm air before a grinding noise from the car abruptly ends the pause.

The runaway Austin

The veterinary practice’s Austin begins rolling backwards down the slope. It has apparently slipped out of gear and has almost no effective brakes. Tristan is closest and manages only to touch the bonnet before the car gathers too much speed to stop. He and Herriot can do no more than watch as it bounces over the uneven hillside. Its open doors spill bottles, instruments, bandages, and cotton wool across the grass; packets of nux vomica and bicarbonate stomach powder burst against the green, leaving a scattered trail of veterinary supplies behind it.

A small wooden building stands near the foot of the hill, where the ground levels out, and the Austin barrels directly towards it. Herriot turns away just before impact, concentrating on the glowing end of Tristan’s cigarette. When he looks back, the building has been flattened, and the car rests on its side atop the broken timbers, its wheels still turning lazily. The abrupt contrast between the violent destruction and the oddly peaceful image of the overturned car gives the crash its darkly comic force.

A familiar threat of dismissal

As the two men run down the hill, the wreck carries an additional meaning for Tristan. Only a fortnight earlier, he had overturned the Hillman while taking a girl home from a dance. That car was a complete write-off, the insurance people had treated him harshly, and Siegfried had responded by sacking him, declaring that he never wanted to see Tristan at the practice again. Tristan has been dismissed often enough to believe that keeping out of his brother’s way for a while will let Siegfried’s anger subside. This time, however, the damaged vehicle is the Austin, making the likely consequences harder to dismiss.

Herriot also sees a reason Tristan may have escaped the full force of the previous episode: Siegfried has recently persuaded his bank manager to let him buy a beautiful new Rover, which has displaced the earlier disaster in his attention. That circumstance does not prevent the Austin from rolling, nor does it settle what Siegfried will do when he learns of the new wreck. Instead, it sharpens the scene’s suspense: as the men pass syringes, scalpels, and vaccine bottles scattered on the slope, Tristan faces the prospect of having to explain what has happened.

The clubhouse and the farmer’s bargain

At the car, the damage initially seems limited. Its body was already battered and dented, so the rear end’s new-looking damage is difficult to distinguish; the clearest visible mark is a smashed rear light. The men return to the farm for help, where the farmer, Mr. Prescott, greets them as if they might simply have come back for more beer. When Tristan mentions an accident, their host opens more bottles without appearing alarmed by the demolition.

The explanation changes the scale of the mishap. The hut belongs not to Mr. Prescott but to the Darrowby Golf Club, which rents that part of his land and has made a small nine-hole course there. The building was the club’s clubhouse, the only wooden structure in the fields. Mr. Prescott says hardly anyone plays, chiefly the bank manager, whom he dislikes. His indifference is practical as well as personal: the destruction is real, but he does not treat it as a crisis demanding an immediate report.

With the farmer’s help, the Austin is pulled upright using a horse. Tristan climbs in trembling slightly, presses the starter, and finds the sturdy engine still roaring; he carefully drives over the fallen walls and onto the grass. Mr. Prescott then offers a bargain: Tristan should say nothing about the incident, and he will do the same. Tristan accepts, and the two men drive back up the hill. The building is demolished, but the car can continue, and the farmer’s silence turns a potentially renewed confrontation with Siegfried into an accident that, for the moment, remains concealed.

Narrative significance

The episode builds its comedy from a sharp reversal in scale and expectation. A routine visit ends with a veterinary car racing downhill, its professional equipment strewn across the grass, and a golf clubhouse reduced to timbers. Yet the aftermath does not follow the expected path of formal complaint or immediate punishment: the damaged car starts, the farmer is hospitable, and his dislike of the bank manager makes concealment seem almost companionable. The earlier Hillman crash keeps Siegfried’s anger in view throughout, so the reprieve is not merely about property damage; it is also a temporary escape from the pattern of Tristan’s repeated dismissals. The scene closes not with a reckoning, but with the Austin climbing away and both men carrying the secret back towards home.