ASCOT. 93 



with double thong well timed, brought all straight ! " 

 His friend Paulett stared and so did his guests. 



' All this made me afterwards watch this youngster, 

 and I confess he pleased me much. There's an ease, a 

 total absence of affectation, a nerveless confidence, an 

 extraordinary facility of hands (without any of that pretty 

 sort of shifting and twirling in white gloves), which 

 mark him at once to profess a thorough knowledge of his 

 art aided by nature, with sufficient grace to stamp him 

 elegant. I wish much for his acquaintance, that I may 

 learn to work with one hand, and how to carry the tool. 



' No place, no amusement, no holiday making, is so 

 enchanting to the softer sex. Gentle and simple, grave 

 and gay— all are on tip-toe of joy, and out jumps nature 

 from both ends— eyes and feet, lords, ladies, tastily 

 costumed, with roses and lilies untainted, or rather, 

 unpainted by Bond Street ; farmers' daughters and 

 farmers' wives sparkling in silks, pleased with their 

 friends' shorts and white tops, rosy in cheek, tinted by 

 soft breezes and bottled ale ; parasols for the sun, and 

 ogling eyes for the parasols : olla podrida (a l'Espagnolle) 

 here has its reign. Royalty, aristocracy, no exception 

 in rank or station, thieves and justices ; spendthrifts and 

 misers, gamesters from high hell and low hell ; the Stock 

 Exchange to the Regent's Park ; gentlemen aping lords, 

 and lords aping grooms, music without harmony, glee 

 singers with hoarse throats, waltz-dancing in six-feet 

 stilts, boxers, with peering eyes, coming it strong for a 



cross, jockeys mum in speech, but d d sly in looks ; 



horse-dealers and horse-stealers, gipsies to tell your 



