Bankruj^tci) in Arcadia. 191 



year round, and all our little excitements made fun for all, 

 and we were dependent on one another for amusements. 

 Near friends then made a little holiday occasionally at very 

 .small expense, and got up a little archery and cricket, and 

 the grand old game of bowls on a summer afternoon, with- 

 out any fuss or ceremony, with a syllabub and cold supper 

 at dark ; and the guests were not afraid to walk home three 

 or four miles afterwards, if they did not keep a carriage. 

 I wonder if a syllabub is ever made now, and if any one 

 knows how to make it ? Or, again, in the winter, someone 

 would have a rabbit-shooting, or small coursing meeting of 

 a few friends, who Avould be content with luncheon, con- 

 sisting of a colossal piece of hunter's beef, and other farm 

 produce, plenty of home-brewed ale, and home-made cherry 

 brandy. This was before the days of champagne, a wine 

 which I never saw or tasted until I was eighteen years of 

 age, and which I drank as cyder, to my cost, in happy 

 ignorance, and tried to persuade myself that a soft corner 

 of a by-lane was a comfortable place to sleep in, and found 

 it so until a good Samaritan, whose opinions differed from 

 mine, picked me up and kept me until I was fit to enter 

 polite society once more. 



Then we had our three subscription county balls in the 

 winter, and our pic-nics in the summer, and in all ou^ 

 amusements we were dependent on one another. 



The fact is, the country has become Londonised to a 

 great extent, and we have lost our simplicity thereby. The 

 mania for foreign travel has made people comparatively 

 regardless of the old home pleasures, and they look to 

 taking their excitement anywhere except at home. Even 

 lawn-tennis, the most charming amusement and exercise for 

 young ladies as well as gentlemen, is getting demoralized 

 by fashionable toilettes, and champagne cup and competition 

 matches, and prize rackets, and is becoming a business more 



