as stupid as
country races usually are, except that the Welshmen had rather more
noise about it. The guttural shouts and yells from the throats of
tenants and other dependents, as the "mishtur's" horse won or lost, and
the extraordinary terms in which they endeavoured to encourage the
riders, were amusing even to a stranger, though one lost the point of
the various sallies which kept the course in one continued roar. As to
the running, every body--that is, all the sporting world--knew perfectly
well, long before the horses started, which was to win; that appearing
to be the result of some private arrangement between the parties
interested, while the "racing" was for the benefit of the strangers and
the ladies. Those of the latter who had fathers, or brothers, or, above
all, lovers, among the knowing ones, won divers pairs of gloves on the
occasion, while those who were not so fortunate, lost them.

I fancied that Clara was not in her usual spirits on the race-course,
and she pleaded a headach as an excuse to her sister for ordering the
carriage to drive home long before the "sport" was over. If I had
thought the said sport stupid before, it did not improve in attraction
after her departure; and, when the jumping in sacks, and climbing up
poles, and other callisthenic exercises began, feeling a growing disgust
for "things in general," I resisted the invitation of a mamma and three
daughters, to join themselves and Mr Dawson in masticating some
sandwiches which looked very much like "relics of joy" from last night's
supper, and sauntered home, and sat an hour over a cigar and a chapter
of ethics. As the clock struck five, remembering that the Ordinary hour
was six, I called at the Phillips' lodgings to enquire for Clara. She
was out walking with her sister; so I returned to dress in a placid
frame of mind, confident that I should meet her at dinner.

For it was an Ordinary for ladies as well as gentlemen. A jovial Welsh
baronet sat at the head of the table, with the two ladies of highest
"consideration"--the county member's wife and the would-have-been
member's daughter--on his right and left; nobody thought of politics at
the Glyndewi regatta. Clara was there; but she was escorted into the
room by some odious man, who, in virtue of having been made high-sheriff
by mistake, sat next Miss Anti-reform on the chairman's left. The
natives were civil enough to marshal us pretty high up by right of
strangership, but still I w