Banhnij^tcy in Arcadia. 189 



country, and was not so appalling as to dissuade him from 

 the attempt to do as well as Mr. A., or Mr. B., or friend C.^ 

 all of whom he knew and had seen dozens of times with the 

 hounds, or going to or returning from covert. It was all 

 fair riding without roping or besting. 



Even the flower shows are almost impossible to keep up, 

 and there is " roping " in these pure arcadian amusements. 

 Unless the prizes are large enough gardeners won't exhibit, 

 and even then there is a great deal of " squaring " amongst 

 them, and private agreement about dividing the schedule, 

 so that a few only shall compete for each class, and thereby 

 secure prizes for all. And in the cottagers' department it 

 is necessary to have the gardens inspected many weeks 

 before the show, to insure competitors not buying fruit or 

 flowers and exhibiting them as of their own growth. Even 

 the village children who show wild flowers and grasses have 

 to be severely cross-examined sometimes as to whether the 

 collection is really their own. The auri sacra fames is 

 eating us up, and Astrsea herself could not in these days 

 satisfy the disappointed. 



The village bell-ringing, too, is now purely a matter of 

 money, and the inter-village contests for a supper do not 

 exist. Eingers want now a guaranteed sum per annum, 

 and expect a subscription for a summer excursion, and a 

 heavy honorarium in the winter ; and in many places they 

 think a crown somewhat shabby, and half a sovereign by 

 no means too much. 



The country fair is becoming another thing of the past. 

 The manufacturers of colossal gingerbread cocks with gilded 

 sides must have a poor trade of it now ; the fat lady, the 

 John Bull dwarf in top-boots, the little old w^oman of seventy 

 years of age (who was shown to the audience, and who was 

 probably " doubled " in her part by the showman's child), 

 who was put in a small barrel and rang a hand-bell through 



