The Scouring of the White Horse; Or, The Long Vacation Ramble of a London ClerkHughes, Thomas
General
The Scouring of the White Horse; Or, The Long Vacation Ramble of a London Clerk
Hughes, Thomas
White Horse, Vale of (England)
When he was gone I walked down to the clump of trees and went into the
cave; and then sat down on the great flat stone which covers it over,
and finished putting down all I had heard from the old gentleman; and
thought what odd people a man finds about the world, and how many
things there are which one never heard of that other folk are spending
their lives over. Then I went up to the camp again to find Joe, for
the afternoon was getting on. True enough, as he had said, when I got
back there I found it all getting into order. All along the north
side were the theatres and peep-shows, and acrobats, and the pink-eyed
lady, and the other shows. On the west side were the publicans’ booths,
some of them all ready, and others half up, but all with their places
settled; and the great street of hucksters’ stalls and cheap-Jacks was
all set out along the south side, and as more and more of them came
up they went off to the end of the line and pitched regularly. The
gypsies and people with no regular business were all got away into a
corner, behind the stalls. On the west side the county police were
pitching their large tent close away by the bank, out of the way of
everybody; and, some way in front of them, Lord Craven’s people had
put up two military-looking tents which I heard had belonged to the
42d Regiment, with a great flagstaff close by them. About the middle
of the camp stood a large stage about six feet high, roped round for
the backswording and wrestling. There was plenty of room now, and all
the people, who were not working at the booths and stalls, were sitting
about boiling kettles and getting their food. It was a very cheerful,
pretty sight, up there out of the way of every thing.
I soon found Joe amongst a group of farmers and one or two young
gentlemen, some on horseback and some on foot, standing round the
Squire. They were talking over the arrangements before going home; and
I stood a little way off, so as not to interrupt them or to seem to be
pushing myself into their company.
“Now I think we have done all we can to-day,” said the Squire,
gathering up his reins; “but some of us must be up early to-morrow to
get the lists made, and settle every thing about the games.”
“About ten o’clock, Sir?”
“Yes, that will do capitally. Now I shall just go and see how they have
done the Horse.”
So he rode out of the camp, and we all followed over the brow of the
hill till we came to a good point for seeing the figure, which looked
as bright and clean as a new sixpence.
“I think he’ll do very well,” said the Squire.
“Listen to the scourers,” said one of the young gentlemen.
They had finished their work, and were sitting in a group round a
large can of beer which the Squire had sent down to them; and one of
them was singing a rumbling sort of ditty, with a tol-de-rol chorus, in
which the rest joined lazily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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