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)
The bystanders all cheered. Moses, the militiaman, was rather a joke to
them. The shepherd looked scornful, but was ready to try a file; but
he stipulated that Mose must borrow some shoes instead of his great,
iron-clouted high-lows, (no man is allowed to wrestle, I found, with
any iron on his shoes.)
This seemed likely to stop the fun. Moses pulled off his high-lows,
and appeared in sinkers,[31] at which everybody roared; but no shoes
were to be had. Then he offered to wrestle without shoes; but at last
a pair were found, and Moses advanced with his great hands stretched
out towards the shepherd, who, not deigning to take one hand out of his
pocket, caught Mose’s elbow with the other. After one or two awkward
attempts, and narrowly escaping some well-meant trips, Mose bored in;
and before the shepherd could seize the militiaman’s collar with his
second hand, over he went, and Mose was proclaimed winner of a file,
amid shouts of laughter. Then they buckled to again, the shepherd doing
his best; but somehow Mose managed to keep his legs; and when they went
down, both fell on their sides, and it was only a dog-fall.
In another minute I saw the militiaman in the tent before the table.
“Plaze, Sur, put down Moses Tilling--young geamster--wrastlin’.”
After watching the tent till the lists were just closing, I started
off to see if I could find Miss Lucy, who ought to have been up by
this time, and to get something to eat before the sports began. The
luncheon I managed easily enough, for I went over to the great booth in
which I had dined the day before, and sat down at the long table, where
Peter welcomed me, and soon gave me as much as I could eat and drink.
But when I had finished, and went out to look for my friends, I found
it a very difficult business, and no wonder, for there were more than
20,000 people up on the Hill.
First I went to the outside of the Castle, where all the carriages were
drawn up in long rows, to see if I could find the four-wheel amongst
them. As I was poking about, I came close to a fine open carriage,
and hearing a shout of merry laughter, looked up. There were a party
at lunch; two ladies and some quite young girls inside, some boys on
the box, and several gentlemen standing round, holding bottles and
sandwiches; and they were all eating and drinking, and laughing at an
old gypsy woman, who was telling the fortune of one of the ladies.
“Love’ll never break your heart, my pretty lady,” said the old woman;
“let the Norwood gypsy see your hand, my pretty lady.”
The lady held out her right hand, and the little girls glanced at the
lady, and one another, brimming with fun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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