204 IDLEHURST : 



cut, square-topped felt hats, and leather leggings. 

 All about the pens business goes on with the cus- 

 tomary tortuous approaches and leisurely stages of 

 advance. A hundred lambs change hands at thirty 

 shillings a head, a score of tegs at forty-two. The 

 County Bank's representative sits in a brougham on 

 the fringe of the Green all the morning, and through 

 the window pass the handfuls of cheques and notes of 

 a depressed agricultural interest. The farmers com- 

 miserate one another's losses with uproarious shouts 

 of laughter ; they adjourn frequently to the booths 

 which the Crown and the Crocodile, and twenty other 

 of the neighbouring inns, pitch very profitably on 

 Fair Day. Once more the reflective observer rumi- 

 nates upon the mystery of a Ruined Class. 



Turning at the upper limit of the sheep-fair, and 

 looking back over the long ascent, alive with confused 

 motion and noise here the admirable stock, here 

 the gross, hearty men, the apparent signs of abundance 

 and easy circumstances, one wonders (forgetting 

 perhaps for the moment the corn-interest) what the 

 good years can have had to show more than this ? 



I walk round the cattle ground ; beasts are selling 

 fairly ; and, if the trade in horses is disproportionate 

 to the noise and energy of the dealers, to the shouts 

 of " hi hi hi ! " and rattling of pink calico flags, 



