own to the village, which was about three miles.

This was the day of the Revels, which corresponds pretty well with what
is called in other parts of England a pleasure fair; that is to say,
although some business might be done, yet it was only a secondary
object to amusement.

The main village of Drumston was about a mile from the church which I
have before noticed, and consisted of a narrow street of cob-houses,
whitewashed and thatched, crossing at right angles, by a little stone
bridge, over a pretty, clear trout-stream. All around the village,
immediately behind the backs of the houses, rose the abrupt red hills,
divided into fields by broad oak hedges, thickly set with elms. The
water of the stream, intercepted at some point higher up, was carried
round the crown of the hills for the purposes of irrigation, which,
even at this dead season, showed its advantages by the brilliant
emerald green of the tender young grass on the hill-sides. Drumston, in
short, was an excellent specimen of a close, dull, dirty, and, I fear,
not very healthy Devonshire village in the red country.

On this day the main street, usually in a state of ancle-deep mud six
months in the year, was churned and pounded into an almost knee-deep
state, by four or five hundred hobnail shoes in search of amusement.
The amusements were various. Drinking (very popular), swearing (ditto),
quarrelling, eating pastry ginger-bread and nuts (female pastime), and
looking at a filthy Italian, leading a still more filthy monkey, who
rode on a dog (the only honest one of the three). This all day, till
night dropped down on a scene of drunkenness and vice, which we had
better not seek to look at further. Surely, if ever man was right, old
Joey Bender, the methodist shoemaker, was right, when he preached
against the revels for four Sundays running, and said roundly that he
would sooner see all his congregation leave him and go up to the
steeplehouse (church) in a body, than that they should attend such a
crying abomination.

The wrestling, the only honest sensible amusement to be had, was not in
much favour at Drumston. Such wrestling as there was was carried on in
a little croft behind the principal of the public-houses, for some
trifling prize, given by the publicans. In this place, James
Stockbridge and myself had wandered on the afternoon of the day in
question, having come down to the revel to see if we could find some
one we wanted.

There was a small