Coarse, rough-complexioned women and girls
were intermingled, the girls with no maiden trimness in their attire,
large and blowsy. Nobody seemed to have been washed that day. All the
enjoyment was of an exceedingly sombre character, so far as I saw it,
though there was a richer variety of sports than at similar festivals in
America. There were wooden horses, revolving in circles, to be ridden a
certain number of rounds for a penny; also swinging cars gorgeously
painted, and the newest named after Lord Raglan; and four cars balancing
one another, and turned by a winch; and people with targets and rifles,--
the principal aim being to hit an apple bobbing on a string before the
target; other guns for shooting at the distance of a foot or two, for a
prize of filberts; and a game much in fashion, of throwing heavy sticks
at earthen mugs suspended on lines, three throws for a penny. Also,
there was a posture-master, showing his art in the centre of a ring of
miscellaneous spectators, and handing round his bat after going through
all his attitudes. The collection amounted to only one halfpenny, and,
to eke it out, I threw in three more. There were some large booths with
tables placed the whole length, at which sat men and women drinking and
smoking pipes; orange-girls, a great many, selling the worst possible
oranges, which had evidently been boiled to give them a show of
freshness. There were likewise two very large structures, the walls made
of boards roughly patched together, and rooted with canvas, which seemed
to have withstood a thousand storms.
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