London to John O 1 Groat's. 267 



the air as they neck-and-neck it in the middle of the 

 heat. When the winners of the prizes receive their 

 rewards at his hands, his kind words and the radiant 

 benevolence of his face they value more than the con- 

 quest and the coins they win. 



Then there are intellectual entertainments and de- 

 liberative proceedings of grave moment arranged for 

 the elder portion of the great congregation. While 

 groups of blushing lads and lasses are hunting the 

 handkerchief in the hustle and tussle of the ring under 

 the great, solemn elms, a scene may be witnessed on the 

 lawn nearer the mansion that ought to have been 

 painted long ago. Two or three double-horse wagons 

 are ranged end to end in the shade, and planks are 

 placed along from one end to the other, making a 

 continuous seat for a score or two of orators. In front 

 of this dozen-wheeled tribune rows of seats, capable of 

 holding several hundred persons, are arranged within 

 hearing distance. When these are all filled and sur- 

 rounded by a standing wall of men and women, three 

 or four deep, and when the orators of the day ascend 

 over the wheels to the long wagon-seat, you have a 

 scene and an assembly the like of which you find no 

 where else in Christendom. No Saxon parliament of 

 the Heptarchy could " hold a candle to it." Never, in 

 any age or country of free speech, did individual ideas, 



