148 THE EXETER ROAD 



It was the blue ribbons she wanted, you see. Let us, 

 dear friends, hope she got them. 



Many dangers threatened the Johnnies — the Colin 

 Clouts of that time. The fair was the happy hunting- 

 ground of Sergeant Kite, who used to treat the dull- 

 witted fellows until they were stupid as owls, when, 

 liey 'presto ! the Queen's Shilling was clapped into 

 their nerveless palms, and they woke the next morn- 

 ing to find themselves duly enlisted, with a Inuich of 

 parti-coloured ribbons fixed in their hats as a token 

 and badge of their military servitude. Then ' what 

 price ' those blue ribbons lying forgotten in the 

 pocket for the disconsolate fair one ? Nothing under 

 a fine of twenty pounds sterling sufiiced to release a 

 recruit in those days, and as few families could then 

 aftord that ransom, the fair was a turning-point in 

 the career of many a lusty fellow. 



The recruitino- sero;eant still does a little business 

 at Weyhill, but his claws are nowadays cut very 

 close. 



AVeyhill, as you approach it, is situated, much to 

 your surprise, not on a hill at all, but rather on the 

 flat. It is a mere nothing of a village, and beyond 

 the parish church, the inevitable inn, and the equally 

 inevitable farmhouse, houses are very much to seek. 



The stranger wdio happens upon the place at any 

 other than fair time is astonished by the large 

 numbers of open sheds and the numerous clusters 

 of long, low, thatched, and white - washed cottages, 

 situated on a wide, open, grassy common beside the 

 road, all empty, and every one bearing boldly-painted 

 announcements, in Ijlack paint, of ' Hot Dinners,' 



