It is a nice chapter, this. The "slow change of scenery" is quite interesting; if the previous chapter was about sunny days, and autumn, but still with some green; dry trek through the hills with some wind, and ending in Elvish twilight under the stars, this chapter goes from clouds on the horizon to overcast and wet and drizzle and mud and bushes and nightfall literally choking with fog (incidentally, it is amazing how Tolkien manages to convey the feel-once again, by for example mentioning Merry's scarf). The chapter is, in fact, about as vivid in its description of the land and weather as the previous one (and that is one of the things I love about LotR the most), only it is much less pleasant setting.
What is pleasant here is the character of Farmer Maggot. His honest, welcoming attitude is heartwarming after the awful feeling of Riders all over the place. Incidentally, I have noticed that however small her role might seem, Mrs. Maggot is also quite well sketched-out here, she even has lines (!), and you can get a pretty good feel of what kind of a person she was. She is also really nice and objectively, not any less important than Mr. Maggot.
Otherwise, yet again I was disturbed and reminded of the Beorn episode when I felt that Wizards and the narrator of this piece count differently than normal people. I see I had posted about this here during the last re-read only a couple of posts above. It's about the number of people sitting at the table, of course. Mr. Maggot, Mrs. Maggot, three visitors, five young Maggots and "one or two" farmhands don't make fourteen. So apparently the only missing thing in this chapter is Black Riders setting the house on fire and singing "Fifteen birds around the table".
Ad Black Riders and their voices: I remembered one thing regarding the "words in that cry", I recall that I once wondered what language that was - Black Speech? Or something else? I think, personally, it is better to just leave that question open (it is much scarier that way), but just mentioning.
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories
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