Wessex . t other entertainments and shows are thedouble-headed lady—an illusion which would scarcelytake in the most innocent of yokels,—a chicken withthree heads (born in the county), and other freaks inwhich the people appear to delight. There used tobe also the loud-voiced, red-faced, and jolly-lookinggentlemen who, with small tables in front of them,invited Hodge to predict under which thimble the peawould be found. These must have done a good trade,for even Hodge possesses the speculative instinct whichleads him to reckless prophecy on the chance of making something. Then as the afternoon
Wessex . t other entertainments and shows are thedouble-headed lady—an illusion which would scarcelytake in the most innocent of yokels,—a chicken withthree heads (born in the county), and other freaks inwhich the people appear to delight. There used tobe also the loud-voiced, red-faced, and jolly-lookinggentlemen who, with small tables in front of them,invited Hodge to predict under which thimble the peawould be found. These must have done a good trade,for even Hodge possesses the speculative instinct whichleads him to reckless prophecy on the chance of making something. Then as the afternoon wears on little groups ofcountry folk seat themselves on the slopes which over-look the picturesque townlet away down in the hollowof the valley, and talk over old times, and express theopinion that the Fair is not what it once was. At sundown, when the blue September shadowscommence to enshroud the vast stretches of Bere Heath 254 MORETON, DORSETThe village aear Talbothays, Tess of the D Urbervilles. Night at the Fair away to the south of the hill—the famous EgdonHeath before mentioned—and the twinkling lights ofthe little townlet shine out one by one like glowwormsin the vale, the fun becomes more furious. Amid all the solitude of the vales which radiate fromthe base of Woodbury Hill, high above them is thisthronged camp of ancient Briton and conquering Roman,seething with the free, frank, and bucolic merriment ofthousands of Wessex folk. The booths and stalls, litwith naphtha flares, present a weird, uncanny picture ;whilst down the hillside slowly and cautiously creeplights, shaking on the road and disappearing to reappearlike fire-flies, hung on the vehicles of quieter folk whoare wending their homeward way early. From the vale below, this immense hill, blue-greyin the oncoming gloom of night, lit with a canopy ofyellow radiance, seems like some huge pagan altar ;and the hoarse murmur of the throng floats down tothe listener in the meads like the distant roar of a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1906
