2 74 Saddle and Sirloin. 



inns, as if he had been negotiating a triple alliance. 

 Being president was esteemed such an honour that, as 

 it went by seniority, one eccentric man was said 

 to arrive in March, and possess his soul in patience 

 and the solitude of the big room for months, in order 

 that he might be in office all the season round. 

 Bachelors gathered round him in plenty, quite 



" ready to take their stand 

 Upon a widow's jointure land," 



if a likely chance turned up. 



The Queen's holds the lead now, and in the warm 

 twilight the company linger on the garden terrace, and 

 peer through the panes at the dancers within ; and 

 give little biographies of each of them. By day it is 

 the old story, Knaresborough Dripping Well, Foun- 

 tains Abbey, Plumpton, Hackfall, &c., and Brimham 

 Rocks, where Bill Scott, the winner of four Derbies, 

 three Oaks, and nine St. Legers, once rode in a donkey 

 carriage in state, with two donkey boys as outriders. 

 It needs some excitement to keep the casual visitor 

 in spirits on a dull summer's evening, and we sought 

 for it in vain before the sun went down. There was 

 not a soul in the room at the old Sulphur Spa. Those 

 who were not at dinner had gone to hear the band 

 play at a shilling a head to non-subscribers, in Mont- 

 pelier Gardens, or to attend the readings of Mr. 

 Bellew. Punch and Judy occupied the green in front 

 of the White Hart, and had many gray-haired sages 

 in their audience ; and if you did gaze carefully into 

 the windows of the front shops, you only withdrew 

 perplexed as to which was really " the last photo ever 

 taken" of a local physician recently deceased, and 

 which he had most honoured with his approbation. 



Early next morning there was quite an agricultural 

 gathering on the railway platform for Wetherby. It 

 is a very small place, but its National Steeple-chase 

 ground, which Jacob Faithful, Israelite, and Em- 

 peror II., knew well, is, according to many, " the best 



