FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248  
249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   >>   >|  
ness of the ground, completely veiled the house we had passed, and the few low firs and sycamores which made its only plantations. The sullen pool--its ghost-like guardian--the dreary heath around, the rude features of the country beyond, and the apparent absence of all human habitation, conspired to make a scene of the most dispiriting and striking desolation. I know not how to account for it, but as I gazed around in silence, the whole place appeared to grow over my mind, as one which I had seen, though dimly and drearily, before; and a nameless and unaccountable presentiment of fear and evil sunk like ice into my heart. We ascended the hill, and the rest of the road being of a kind better adapted to expedition, we mended our pace and soon arrived at the goal of our journey. The race-ground had its customary compliment of knaves and fools--the dupers and the duped. Poor Lady Chester, who had proceeded to the ground by the high road (for the way we had chosen was inaccessible to those who ride in chariots, and whose charioteers are set up in high places,) was driving to and fro, the very picture of cold and discomfort; and the few solitary carriages which honoured the course, looked as miserable as if they were witnessing the funeral of their owner's persons, rather than the peril of their characters and purses. As we rode along to the betting-post, Sir John Tyrrell passed us: Lord Chester accosted him familiarly, and the baronet joined us. He had been an old votary of the turf in his younger days, and he still preserved all his ancient predilection in its favour. It seemed that Chester had not met him for many years, and after a short and characteristic conversation of "God bless me, how long since I saw you!--d--d good horse you're on--you look thin--admirable condition--what have you been doing?--grand action--a'n't we behind hand?--famous fore-hand--recollect old Queensberry?--hot in the mouth--gone to the devil--what are the odds?" Lord Chester asked Tyrrell to go home with us. The invitation was readily accepted. "With impotence of will We wheel, tho' ghastly shadows interpose Round us, and round each other."--Shelley. Now, then, arose the noise, the clatter, the swearing, the lying, the perjury, the cheating, the crowd, the bustle, the hurry, the rush, the heat, the ardour, the impatience, the hope, the terror, the rapture, the agony of the race. Directly the first heat was over, one asked me one thing
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248  
249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Chester

 

ground

 

passed

 
Tyrrell
 

conversation

 
characteristic
 

preserved

 
baronet
 

familiarly

 

joined


votary

 

accosted

 

betting

 

younger

 
favour
 
predilection
 
ancient
 

recollect

 

clatter

 

swearing


Shelley
 

interpose

 

shadows

 
perjury
 

cheating

 

rapture

 

terror

 

Directly

 
impatience
 
bustle

ardour
 

ghastly

 
famous
 

Queensberry

 
action
 

condition

 

admirable

 

accepted

 

readily

 

impotence


invitation

 

carriages

 

silence

 

appeared

 

desolation

 

striking

 

account

 
ascended
 

presentiment

 

drearily