3E=^=<g NATURE NEAR LONDON 



At the verge of the pens there stand four oxen 

 with their yokes, and the long slender guiding rod 

 of hazel placed lightly across the necks of the two 

 foremost. They are quite motionless, except their 

 eyes, and the slender rod, so lightly laid across, 

 will remain without falling. After traversing the 

 whole field, if you return you will find them 

 exactly in the same position. Some black cattle 

 are scattered about on the high ground in the 

 mist, which thickens beyond them, and fills up 

 the immense hollow of the valley. 



In the street of booths there are the rounda- 

 bouts, the swings, the rifle galleries like shooting 

 into the mouth of a great trumpet the shows, 

 the cakes and brown nuts and gingerbread, the 

 ale barrels in a row, the rude forms and trestle 

 tables ; just the same, the very same, we saw at 

 our first fair five and twenty years ago, and a 

 hundred miles away. It is just the same this 

 year as last, like the ploughs and hurdles, and 

 the sheep themselves. There is nothing new to 

 tempt the ploughboy's pennies nothing fresh to 

 stare at. 



The same thing year after year, and the same 

 sounds the dismal barrel organs, and brazen in- 

 struments, and pipes, wailing, droning, booming. 

 How melancholy the inexpressible noise when the 

 fair is left behind, and the wet vapours are set- 

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