England -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Social classes -- England -- Fiction
A special prize offered by Doctor Lane for a collection of insect pests
set and mounted by the scholars of Cherrington Church Schools and Horley
Board Schools.
The Countess of Clarehaven has kindly consented to give away the prizes.
The band of the Loyal North Devon Dragoons (by kind permission of
Colonel Budding-Robinson, M.V.O., and officers) will play during the
afternoon.
Swings, roundabouts, cocoanut-shies, climbing greasy pole for a side of
bacon offered by H. Greenish, Esq., sack-races, egg-and-spoon races,
hat-trimming competition for agricultural laborers.
ILLUMINATIONS AND FIREWORKS
Entrance, one shilling. After five o'clock, sixpence. After eight,
threepence. Children free.
REFRESHMENTS
It was a blazing day, one of those typical days when rustic England
seems to consist entirely of large cactus dahlias and women perspiring
in bombazine. Tony, to Dorothy's annoyance, had declined to open the
proceedings with a speech, and with Uncle Chat also refusing, Mr.
Kingdon had to be asked to address the competitors. He bellowed a number
of platitudes about the true foundations of England's greatness, told
everybody that he was a Conservative--a Tory of the old school. He might
say amid all this floral wealth a Conservatory. Ha-ha! He had no use for
new-fangled notions, and, by Jove! when he looked round at the
magnificent display that owed so much to the energy and initiative of
Lady Clarehaven, by Jove! he couldn't understand why anybody wanted to
be anything else except a Conservative.
"No politics, squire," the village atheist cried from the back of the
tent, and Mr. Kingdon, who had been badly heckled by that gentleman at a
recent election meeting, descended from the rostrum.
When the time came to distribute the awards Dorothy sprang the little
surprise of which only Mr. Greenish was in the secret, by making a
speech herself. She spoke with complete self-assurance and, as the
_North Devon Courant_ said, "with a gracious comprehension of what life
meant to her humbler neighbors."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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