REMINISCENCES OF SONERORE. 



"Also I have known many pleasant people not go because 

 they had not a large party of their own, and I have also 

 known charming people leave who had come alone because 

 they felt out in the cold among all the large ' guests' camps.' 

 Mess Camps are a different thing, but they are perhaps pleas- 

 antest when small in themselves with room for plenty of drop- 

 pers-in. No one would wish to preach diminished hospital- 

 ity, but the guests from a distance, though limited in num- 

 bers, are enough generally to make a party pleasant, and then 

 the droppers-in to a pleasant camp are never wanting, in 

 quantity at least. I may be utterly wrong ; Tis frequently 

 so ; but I cannot but feel confident that if people in the neigh- 

 bourhood were allowed to come on their own hooks, separately 

 or in small ' camps/ they would come if they were wanted, 

 and that some would come who stay away as it is, but would 

 be decided additions if they did come. On the first evening 

 they would miss the big camp, but by the time that the after- 

 noon of the first day's racing was over they would be begin- 

 ning to like those whom they would, even by the time the 

 meeting was over. All really used to love one another, and 

 a friend of mine, known to fame as well as to many, ' Mr. 

 Herwald/ used to retire with me, far from all maddening crowd, 

 at midday of the midday of the meeting to reflect in sad and 

 sober earnest that half of the meeting was over. It used 

 really to depress us for a quarter hour or so, and then it 

 all became jollier than ever. Some of us met our ' fates' 

 there, but we literally loved so many there that there was 

 not time to be particular in one's attentions, notwithstanding 

 that the verandah of the ball room was then unseated and 

 uncarpeted and lit only by the moon. 



" How peaceful and bright the course used to look in the 

 full moonlight, and how sweet accents could be heard over 

 that balustrade as the music sounded dimly, though clear 

 enough in that unsurpassable ball room. What a ball room 



