The Pride of Oar Village. 53 



and festivals, when the Athanasian Creed was appointed to 

 b3 read, the old clerk would say to the Vicar, '^ If you please, 

 sir, we have '* Haunanias" creed to-day." The Ranters 

 once tried to preach on the green, and had there been any 

 stocks in the parish, no doubt they would have found them- 

 selves in them ; but as there were no stocks they were 

 simply ordered to move on, and they had the sense to do so, 

 the villagers being conservative, and the river handy. 



Our village was for some twelve months one of the most 

 celebrated in England, for the big house and the park being 

 let by the squire to a nobleman who was sportingly inclined , 

 we all woke up with a new excitement in the shape of 

 racing stables in oar parish. People shook their heads and 

 prophesied the ruin of us all ; but a reaction soon took 

 place. The trainer and a swarm of nice little boys with 

 close-cut hair and shining faces made quite a show in our 

 village church with their smart liveries, and looked as if 

 butter w^ould not melt in their mouths, and the new 

 community of grooms, rough-riders, and stable-boys settled 

 down quite pleasantly amongst us, and people found that a 

 good deal of money was circulated, and that we grew none 

 the wickeder. There was no Sunday training, no four-in- 

 liands came from the cavalry barracks on Sunday after- 

 noons (as the Mawworms all said there woidd be), and the 

 park and the racing stables were as quiet on a Sunday as any 

 other part of the village ; and our new Squire's purse was 

 never closed to any appeal from the Yicar, and we never 

 saw or heard anything of the evils of racing, if such there 

 be. In the autumn our enthusiasm reached its highest 

 pitch, for the next year's Derby favourite became one of 

 our parishioners. High and low, rich and poor, thought 

 and dreamt of nothing else but the coming race in the 

 spring. 



" La ! miss," said our oldest inhabitant, a venerable old 



