1^6 Silk and Scarlet. 



deanery at last. Passing by that gloomy-looking 

 shutter-sealed house, in which he Jived and died, and 

 from which he was wont to steal forth for his solitary 

 wastes down Coverdale, that none but a quiet dales- 

 man or two might see him, we find ourselves at the 

 very edge of the moor. It looks at first sight Hke a 

 mere uneven ridge between two valleys, and we are 

 tempted to say of it, as Mr. Parr did to Tom Dawson, 

 when he had driven right over it to Tupgill, " Coinej 

 tell me where is your trainmg ground f 

 Scenery and '^^^ morning was not a favourable one. 



Company on and the wetness of the summer had made 

 MiddiehamMoor. ^^iQ strings desert the black peat of the 

 high, for the limestone surface of the low moor. Pen- 

 hill looked down on both in all its cloud-capped 

 majesty, and the wreaths of mist curled lazily along 

 the grouse fells, which tapered away to Carlton Moor 

 Heads ; or just lifting the curtain for a moment on 

 the other side, revealed, and then sullenly shrouded, 

 the poet-sung beauties of Wensleydale. It is only ten 

 days from the Leger, and through the driving rain, we 

 can just tell that the lord of the dale is here with his 

 family, to watch The Hadji gallop, and that hero 

 with his tail plaited up, achieves a mile three times in 

 solitary state. But there are other groups besides 

 that. The British Yeoman tout, so called from his 

 delicate attentions to the Champagne winner, is there, 

 and with him, if we mistake not, " The Cooper," alias 

 Tub Thumper ; while the village schoolmaster, with 

 his white hair just peeping under his little grey cap, 

 stands at ease on his stick, in the happy conscious- 

 ness that this is Saturday morning, and that the 

 pupils have a whole holiday. Who knows that he 

 may not have another " Early Village Cock," or a 

 " Joe Lovell," in his lot, to astonish the readers of the 

 Sunday papers .'' Osborne's and Oates's strings also 

 flit before us, through the mist, all doing good Don- 

 caster work ; and then Fobert and his aide-de-camp 



