The Yorkshire Show. 275 



in Britain, bar none." The town bade its visitors 

 welcome with a few flags and a flower arch, but every- 

 thing seemed very quiet, and the fear of sunstrokes 

 kept some thousands away. Half-a-hundred goats of 

 many colours formed an army of occupation at the 

 bridge end. One word was enough to set off the 

 loquacious Irishman who led them, and he soon priced 

 us a kid at seven-and-sixpence, and a nanny, equal to 

 a fabulous number of quarts per day, " Cheap, )^er 

 honner, at twenty-five." There was not the wonted 

 waterfall to drown his chaffer, as the Wharfe had col- 

 lapsed into a bed of shingle, and the whole stream 

 might have gone through an eight-inch pipe. Two 

 men and a woman, the usual company, were singing 

 the song of " The Gre^t Agricultural Show" as we 

 crossed the bridge, and rousing the local spirit by 

 stating that its author is "a young imtcfc-chanic in 

 Wetherby." It was really an old halfpenny friend, 

 and not with a new face either, but simply the well- 

 known blanks, to be filled up by fact or fancy. 

 Micklethwaite is the township over the bridge. It has 

 evidently no church, as the overseer's list of men 

 claiming to vote is hung at an inn door. There are 

 only three claimants, and it is signed, " W. Burley, 

 Overseer!' Some one, with a sad lack of reverence, 

 has drawn a fancy portrait of " ye overseer" close by 

 his signature, in a Spanish hat and beard, and put 

 " W. B." beneath it, so that all men may know. 



Captain Gunter's farm is on the opposite side of the 

 road to this work of art, and his herdsman, Taylor, 

 looks over the wall with rather a sorrowful face. He 

 remembers the days when he took Mr. Eastwood's 

 white bull, Hero, to the Worcester Royal, and brought 

 home the first prize ribbons. Hence he is pugnacious 

 in the highest sense of the word, but the Captain has 

 retired from the show lists. Taylor's regrets are not 

 lessened as the day proceeds. Two of the judges visit 

 his " American heifer," and tell him that the roan calf 



T 2 



