ng matron away.
'La, ma, is that the Dook O' Vellunton vat stand up there
in the sunshine?' 'Hold your tongue, Miss--little girls must
not ask questions about them sort of things.' 'Be th'
powers!' said one of three sturdy young fellows, as they
walked round till they got to sunward of it.' Be th' powers,
but he's a jewel of a fellow; ounly its not quite dacent to
be straddling up there without a shirt--is it Dennis?'
'Gad's blood man!' replied Dennis, rather angrily, 'Gad's
blood man! dacency's quite out of the question in matters o'
this kind, ye see.' ''Faith, and what do they call it?'
asked the other. 'Is it--what do they call it?' re-joined
Dennis, who seemed to consider himself a bit of a wag--'Why
they mane to call it the Ladies' Fancy, to be sure!' and
away they all went, 'laughing like so many horses,' as the
German said, who had heard talk of a horse-laugh. Some of
the spectators compared the shield to a parasol without a
handle; others to a pot-lid; and one a sedate-looking old
woman, observing the tarpawling still covering the legs and
lower part of the thighs, remarked to her companion, that
she supposed they had been uncovering it by degrees, in
order to use the people to the sight gradually. In short,
poor Achilles evidently caused more surprise than
admiration, and no small portion of ridicule. But then this
was among the vulgar. No doubt the fashionable patronesses
of the thing may view it with other eyes.

~~349~~~ On their return from the Park, our party looked in at
Tattersal's, where it proved to be settling day. Dashall and his Cousin
had previously made a trip to Ascot Races, to enjoy a day's sport, and
were so fortunate as to let in a knowing one for a considerable sum, by
taking the long odds against a favourite horse. They therefore expected
now to toutch the blunt, and thus realize the maxim of the poet, by
"uniting profit and delight in one."

[Illustration: page349 Ascot Races]

"Yonder," says Dashall, pointing out to his Cousin a very stout man,
"is H. R. H.; he is said to have been a considerable winner, both at the
late, as well as Epsom races; but the whole has since vanished at
play, with heavy additions, and the black legs are now enjoying a rich
harvest. The consequences have been, not only the sale of the fine
estate of O--t--ds by the hammer, but even