THE HORSE FAIR 149 



' Refreshments,' and the like. The stransjer mio-ht be 

 excused if he thought this some bankrupt settlement 

 whose vanished inhabitants, like the peo|)le of that 

 mythical place who ' eked out a precarious existence 

 bv takino- in one another's washincj;,' had lived on 

 selling refreshments to each other until they had 

 fuially all died of indigestion. He would be very 

 much mistaken, however, in his surmise, for this is 

 Weyhill Fair-ground in undress. If you wish to see 

 it in full swing, you must visit the spot between 

 10th and 13th October, Avhen it is lively enouoh. 



The first day is the Sheep Fair. As many as 

 150,000 sheep have been sold here on this day. 

 The Horse Fair is held every day ; and an astonishing 

 number and variety of horses there are too. Irish 

 horses, brought all the way from Cork, Scotch horses, 

 Welsh horses ; every kind of horse, from the Suff'olk 

 Punch to the New Forest Pony. Great lumbering 

 young cart-horses stand behind their pens with manes 

 and tails plaited to wonderment with straw, for all 

 the world like beauties dressed for the County Ball, 

 and just as proud and self-conscious. Do you want 

 to buy a horse of any kind at the Fair ? Then 

 don"t ! — unless, indeed, you know all that is to be 

 known about horses, and a 1 )it over ; otherwise the 

 dealer will ' have ' you, for a dead certainty. To see 

 them showing off" a horse's good qualities and hiding 

 his bad ones is a liberal education, l)ut see that you 

 acquire your knowledge at some one else's expense. 

 With this determination you can afford to be well 

 amused with the waving of coloured flags on long 

 sticks, by which the horses are made to j)ii'ouette 



