202 IDLEHURST : 



horsemanship up and down the grass. All along the 

 western edge of the Green runs the Pleasure Fair, 

 a wide street lined with a hundred vans, with shows 

 and stalls and gipsy tents, and capacious booths for 

 beer. 



At the edge of the Green we met with Mrs. Lydia, 

 Margaret Fletcher, Alice and a tribe of her friends. 

 To them I handed over Bob ; and I saw the youngsters 

 plunge at the double into that enchanted ground 

 where lines of cocoanut shies, attended by mellifluous 

 and urbane gentlemen in picturesque costumes, 

 masked a dim magnificent background of swings, 

 roundabouts, and a menagerie with real live lions. I 

 turned back to the sheep-pens and went the round, 

 with a look now and then at the fat-backed, clean- 

 woolled lambs packed between the wattles, but oftener 

 at the crowd which moves about the lanes or stands 

 bargaining at the corners. In the pens shepherds 

 are busy counting the lambs, picking out strays, or 

 marking the sold lots ; shepherds from all parts of 

 the county, oldish, worthy-looking men for the most 

 part, weather-burnt and rusty-bearded, many wearing 

 the slate-coloured frock, and carrying the ancient 

 green umbrella with whalebone ribs. The shining 

 crooks are stuck in the ground at the pen-side, and 

 under them are chained the dogs, resting, nose on 



