ake, for
example, that most conspicuous feature of the Season--the walking,
riding, driving in the Row. It was Tickell who made a woman of fashion
of his day tell how she

'Mounted her palfrey as gay as a lark,
And, followed by John, took the dust in Hyde Park,'

and how

'On the way she was met by some smart Macaroni,
Who rode by her side on a little bay pony.'

In our own time the glories and the humours of the Row have been
described with geniality by Mr. Frederick Locker and Mr. Ashby-Sterry,
with point by Mr. Austin Dobson, and with smartness by H. S. Leigh. Says
Mr. Locker:

'Forsooth, and on a livelier spot
The sunbeam never shines;
Fair ladies here can talk and trot
With statesmen and divines.

'What grooms! what gallant gentlemen!
What well-appointed hacks!
What glory in their pace, and then,
What beauty on their backs!'

Mr. Dobson, in a different mood, assures his Roman prototype that the
world to-day is very much what it was in the time of 'Q. H. F.':

'Walk in the Park--you'll seldom fail
To find a Sybaris on the rail
By Lydia's ponies;
Or hap on Barrus, wigged and stayed,
Ogling some unsuspecting maid.

'Fair Neobule, too! Is not
One Hebrus here--from Aldershot?
Aha, you colour!
Be wise. There old Canidia sits;
No doubt she's tearing you to bits.'

The Eton and Harrow match, like lawn-tennis, _caret vate sacro_; but the
delights of Henley and Hurlingham have been sung in verse, and the
Inter-University Boat-race was the subject of some admirable lines by
Mortimer Collins and G. J. Cayley:

'Sweet amid lime-trees' blossom, astir with the whispers of springtide,
Maiden speech to hear, eloquent murmur and sigh
Ah! but the joy of the Thames when, Cam with Isis contending,
Up the Imperial stream flash the impetuous Eights!
Sweeping and strong is the stroke, as they race from Putney to Mortlake,
Shying the Crab Tree bight, shooting through Hammersmith Bridge;
Onward elastic they strain to the deep low moan of the rowlock;
Louder the cheer from the bank, swifter the flash of the oar!'

Pretty again, in its way, is the better-known 'Boat-race Sketch,' by Mr.
Ashby-Sterry, whose heroine

'Twines her fair hair with the colours of Isis,
Whilst those of the Cam glitter bright in her eyes.'

The joys of Epsom and of Goodwood have not, I believe, been versified by
any prominent rhymer, and, concerning those of As