The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-11-07 00:00:00

A WELSH F AIR. [airplay, however, let it be mill that, when tin
(PI OM Vie Azawirier.) was Pat, "Was he right or vorrorig".. the ' —"n
answer was
Invariably, " 0, wrong —yes, indeed r
A notable and astute Indian potentate is credited :
with saying when told, in 187 i, of Azinetelak Khan's
favourite theory, that our armies had been cut off in •
'TUE A TO SWA N.ti ;le
rito:smo:RmipLeutt.Abytntr.
the Crimea, and that if only the Engliehinen then in .
'lndia could be similiarly dealt with, Eta:latent
Kaetern Empire would Wet an code." I have steel
To the Editor.
ion London Bridge, and know better." How that
laconic speech lia.4 been repeated, in sense and I Slit.—The report of the Railway Meeting at Swanaee
tionsenee, from that day to Mid? Yet, what iliwe it r:Lufklas. Teleprom names me ',resew, ••as
r yereham.•• lint to prevent any sort of en,
eignify to an Englishman but that those among whom about it, do me the favour to /AY that m ehnt'l7.,l
the shrewd Minister of Nepaul moved in London as an outside spectator from a ileeire to leerrlywli!;i4.
looked upon the people who paws ever lettelion Bridge the .ielleine propostel—like many others. I had me's; s;ea—
as representative of the rough-hewn life upon which the requisitiou nor taken any pert whatever. lye,
nations depend for moiety in great emergencies it
thatouf tehree
illfirwilli. ninny. that adrailwte
was the "multitude " chiefly that impressed the on the groutil
Eastern chief; but, when the sentence is repeated. it .e
the inhabitants of the la, c 4
has generally the double meaning --of numbers and of l'arbeck must
fediornto thaymkbtoinselvee in the matter, when,
that .4tamina which is at the foundation of great that Individually anything which wo,j
euterpriee. If one only could have taught Jung heuefit Swanage, would injure Wareham, but could ree
Balladeer, and whizzed him away from London Bridge answer for others. On the strong appeal of Mr. .1. le
to Newcastle-on-Tyne, or Carlisle, or Aberdeen, or Gillingham to let my name remain, and after.
York, on the fair day of the place selected, he would se I understood Mr. Robinson to explain, that tas
have forgotten London Bridge for good and aye. I Committee was only to be one for making "preliniieve
will undertake to say that he would have forgotten it inguihries." I had left the meeting before any of the remarks
,eolalorawnafter i
on: iionte
H hoe,, dcliv rod
ifhwhieowhadofstlehide stood
o thetheon., etheirjoitelanyt cadet the
aanwtrai,,lcietili7Letreprrre.rt..\:lt'ialtaoronpfi bad come to the meeting. [
eut 'nub hp
Kiilwelly, and watched the \\reboil lade and lasses of the Wareham and Swanaite Railwahybo:didhowever
coming Into, and (strolling in, Kiilwelly fair. When able it may, or may not be.
pretty curates, in spotless black mate, and neckties as Your obedient servant,
white as snow, read the words, "There were giants in F. Futuna,
those days," they speak as if they were relating a [Our readers will observe that thin is tamely a perewa
((tory °flume tinct race. Giants in thew, day. There explanation and iloom not at all criticiseli eenie whieh,
are giants in these, if people will seek them in the right for ourselves, we would hope there is enough ;Hattie spirit
Swan
places. From whence came • that race of navvies age Si brine to 3 sueceesful and an earls
chute E
, which seemed all at once to spring hem the earth
with wheelbarrows, pickaxes, and shovels complete.
at the summons of the railway contractors
never thought we bad HO many big men," was the
commonest of observationm. The huge iron-shod
boots, fastened ail if for eternity with everlasting
" whangs," the brawny arms, the shaggy hair, the
fists that might have felled a bull, were a wonderment.
People tnarvelleil where all the giants came from, but
they all came from England, and represented some of
the best and worst iitudities of the nation. How on
pay-day they drank, swore, rioted, smashed windows
and heads as for fun, and then went to work in
earnest till next pay-day, are essential features of the
I history if railways. How hard they worked may
also be told; but how tender many of them could be
in their sod huts, with their unkempt children
climbing on their knees and shoulders, and "hulling-
on 'meanwhile by the (shaggy whiskers ne to the
branches of trews, never probably will be told in any
story, There wee Tom Phipps; - did the reader know
Tom Phipps !—who worked on the line filen London
to some place south of Carlisle. Tom was known by
the proudest of all names—" an honest worker." He
gave • fair day's work for a fair day's pay; and he
claimed the pay manfully, not as a favour but a
rtght. He had one fault—nay, two. He drank,
often as long as he had a penny of money, and he
fought, often for love, as regularly as payelay came
round. The railway mania hail found Tom a
labourer, working for fourteen shillings a week on a
certain farm situated between Think and Barnard
Castle somewhere. He had, it is said, been seen
drunk on a few occasions at agricultural meetings
and fairs, that is, he was like 'other folk," and
scorned saintliness in his inmost heart, but then there
was not a lady in all the land of a gentler or less
offensive spirit. He was religious, too, for he sat on
a tombstone in the churchyard regularly every
Sunday morning till "the bells finished," and then
clambered into • back *eat, and heard all about the
hungry being fed and the rich sent away empty—a
text that never failed to make Tom hungry, for lie
knew that if the is uire went away empty it would
simply be because he was not hungry. Then CAMS
to Tom the opening-up of the great mystery of life.
Just before the half-year end a man came round to the
field where Tom was ploughing -a man with trimly-
cut whiskers and eorluroy trouser-4, it man curt and
sharp of speech, and with impatience in every
gesture, and he maid, "Want a job, use malt ?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no," Tom said "what is it to
du ?" "Slake a railway." " What's yer wage" ?"
1" Two pounds a week fir a good man, and tie miteh
more am ye like." That nieht Tom was enlieteil, and Mrs.
Phloem and five little I'hippece cried as if their hearts
would buret, fir being a navvy to them wag like being
a soldier, and being a s..blier was like being transported
to Botany Bay. A week hence, Mrs. Phipps wile
mistress of a eel Ind, one of h !reds, cut off, an it
seemed, from all human kind, and the ehleet little
girl went twice or thrice a day to the "Li unny shoP,"
where TOlll'l4 account for groceries, meat, clothes,
'hacca, everthing eatable and wearable, WWI marked
down with a pen that noede two strokes at a time, if
not four. At the month-enil pay watt forthcoming—an
enorneme amount -such an Tom never before hail seen
in hie life, and never in his wibleet dream had hoped
to tall his own. What a month it had been for eating!
--egg,' and bacon, beef, white-flonr bread, butter.
cheese, and ni3ny other delicacies, unknown it was said
even to the queen. What a month-end it was fir
drinking !—aim. in "galore," ruin and whisky that bit
and made Tom drunk and mail. Next morning
nobody knew how, Tom hail twit black eyes (he condi
not, he saiti, have newel and a broken head: stet two
months hence he was " teock of thn walk." among at
lea-it that imite bawl -if 113VVil.N. Ills first month bad
been one in whieh he hail acted the tart of a booleer
among many (loge. The livemil was different : and et
matters had gone on. At length there ceme a (13y
when Toilets youngest child a hel of seven, smuts run
over by a tntek and mangled to death. Then it wee
that Jung Bahailiew eliould have seen The big
frame heaved se if it would buret 111.1111111,1". It wee a
sight to be remembered. the people eahl years after,
for Toni Phiplos "never beaux] up again...
If Jung Balladeer had et. eel tho ((thee meriting in
the narrew streets id Kidwelly, he would have been
not unnecessarily uneasy for his head-gear mime; the
giante, male and female, who came troeping in fonts
: all the country round. If he hail leeen in the same
street( when the torches were lit in front id the slime-
ing galleries, and of Punch and Judy, he would have
been hustle-el for a certainty if he 11311 been twice an
much a Jung, and twit.* as much a Itabailoor. I have
been in a Cumberland Fair, a Weetneorland, a See.tch
Fair, a Northumberland Fair, all Irish Fair, a Lanca-
shire Fair, a Yorkshire Fair, and in particular in the
Malten Cruekehly Fair (I must cry mercy if the
name is wrongly spelt), held at night • I have
ale'.seen Koine merry-makinge in other land's ; hut for
a peculiar method en the teut of the lade ef encireling
with their mine the waists ef the lasses, I think a
Weleli Fair is unique. To see a young giant
incittachyl to a young gialltlloll4 was to See i'sue id the
meet doleful oeintenanres in the %orb!, only less (bile.
ful than that if the young :Amite.* who lacked the
thind arm—the dispensable fair-day arm—sin' 'mu the
busy throng. In the morning there was the hiring
(straw in the mouth—all ill the olden days, with Aunt
Sally and sundry other intellectual (occupations
among hands. In the evening the streets were peopled
RA thickly Ak the people could etanil together; lout
through all the throng there were strings of iteilestrians
making their way, many under the influence of John
Barleyown, nearly all as 4411/born use mule,* as to not
being pushed out of their direct path, hut extra-
ordinarily good-natured, and ready 1.11 laugh at every-
thing. A London mob would have acted on the
principle of give and take, a principle without which
London would omen be turned upside down. A North
of England or Scotch mob would have been quarrel-
some. Here everybody's face (and the young faces
were mostly may) wore a broad grin, reminding one,
ae shoulders (female as well as male) went together be
the hard pueh, of how Robin Hood and Will Starlet
met on the famous narrow bridge in the merry Sher-
wood day& The great feat in the case of Aunt Sally
is to knock a pipe from the lady's mouth, and the
owner of the Aunt Sally here manmeell to make the
pipe at short, and to fix its.. firmly in its place, that
nothing but actually hitting the pipe was victory. I
saw at least fifty trials without one victory, a 'state of
affairs that would have caused grumbling at Epsom,
when the head of Mistress Sally had been battered
again and again in vain. Here it was taken
as a matter course ; the loser threw his
last stick, burst into a roar of brood-natured
laughter, and went his way, followed
by a merry peal of laughter from the girls.
Lower in the street a cockney of the moat unmistaks
able tyi*, a litle withered tag-rag fellow, lexeimpanied
by a withered tag-rag woman, hail a number of walk-
ing-sticks set on end. The ;trice he offered was for
the throwing of a ring an inch and a quarter diameter
from a distant* of a yard and a half over the head of
any stick; and as the heads of the sticks were at least
three quarters id an inch in diameter --nay, I shut mid
say fully an inch—l need scarcely add that there were
all bLenke and no prizes. This, however, was 11.1 tiling ;
in addition, the man wall a "saucy" plowman. To
one big lauging fellow he ((aid, " There now - you've
won at last," repeating his words in the true showman
manner, and in the midst of the tallc the stalwart
countryman picked out a stick, though he knew he
had not won. mod was composedly walking off with it.
Then both the man and WOMall pounced 01l himmu :1,1 if
they would tear him to pieces' but the victim only
joined the loyatandent in a burst of laughter that rang
again, anti, giving lip the stick, merrily went him way.
Everybody give fairing* to everybody a bit of ginger-
bread, a few nut4,-(v bit of rildeno, the meet trifling
thing, but immethitie• am a token of goodwill. Anil
really 0110 COIII.I not help thinking, ae 0111, lookiel at
the, motley throng, that in nolmetnees, in frit:m.ll4lcm
in not a few (epitome, the people, old anti
young, must have very nearly resembled a
like throne; of their forefather( of the iLlyel
of Edward Longehatike. For tat careful a people, toe,
it was notable to see how reckleeely mmunev Wa-4 thrown
about in primitive games of chance—au feet, perhaps,
owing in Rome meatiure to the large wages which new
inilnetriee, tin work., lime works, kie, levve brought
within the reach of 311 who care to work fer the menus
lif comfort. Finally, a Welsh fair differs from an
F.nglish fair in the fact that the teople speak two
languages.. A conversatiou is carried on half in Welsh
and heti in English, to the eimsternatien of 311
barbaroue Saxons who know only one tongue, I do not
know how far pie may agree with ices, fest I (linnet
hell. thinking that the cemparison of a werd in one
language with the same word in another 111111 an
influent.* in sharpening the intellect. Perhaps there
is no emintry in the world where the great M21.411i1l of
the People are so thioneighly confined to one language
as in England. (In the ontinent the neeeseitiee of
trade over the bonier* of the different te trice
renders it desirable that a child should pick up words.
of ..ther language. In \Vales the two language,s are
learnt en system—the one as the school language, the
other ae the mother tongue : and certainly there is this
I One reason, in addition to the patriotic I.lle, for per-
,l,l,lllll,,iii)itudaar.
traihition, Time netirythnm:ieniln lhulwelly
; is pretty, lead if men .41111 minerals constitute wealth
have sahl above that the crowd at the fair was extra-
orlinarily tee el-natured, and I write what I saw; 1111 t
atu
that
fair 'lay muu,,rulii-,aiitl that
feet -can
I am bound to add that there are stories of fightinge
r LUthwi
n 61:lesegliiita':-.1617:11::1:;'),In::t.o'n1 ri
.I:;:ait.l6mitteli:e: t 13.efi-I
and kieldnes, and I know not what in bream days;
and oven saw. / write, news has arrived of a hicyclerace -
hseing been stopped by a crowd of obstinate
people at a neighbouring town, because the champion
of these parte, mistaking one flag for another, was
thrown out of the race. Ti, the honour of Welsh

PIIOSECU T I 0 N O.
L OF
:i11ieA1.,;:i.,N,.7.0.
timiTsii.,:f fli.
i7t:l.,ltfii.ll,ll.ti.
rt.iii
if
lei.S:ti
iii:1izi'..,,f,,.,,,i.Rnir.r..,:l frir.siT Ut:ioilil,fvoni.ll.4:irkL..i.i.,.til,iS;,,,t,iin.lThit:7:
„..era..
On Friday, at the Iluddensfield Police-court. the
Rev. Francis Ward Monek, a spiritualiat medium,
was brought up on remand eharzsed under the Vagrant
Actuii.i it
°n withA
n nuHe reiit a
34 usingll,i Ita:ee:
again. , t subtle
ty.
week on the ground that he had not had time t.::et
up evidence. He stated that the prisoner had uot
been admitted to bail became) another wareeit was
out against him, and the persons who offered them,
seHleveshaas
rnsusametiermwiiutinh,ete,w.ithpfr..:::,,irt,,,,nuthaa LA.r,,,,,
an j
wwaLearreliriileei;:atasli:al tt'part.)hirs yk:acteurnitteir%)%:Yas 401 ~if fi,hin4 i...st,
.4
sand, and that the tele had waslielo% er tin the ther
Avon three or four years. He f.,,„1 th„ tile
vris
wirer had no money except that eldeh he reotived
from people on whom he nuposed. He therefere
asked that the amount of surety iniAt le iuereaeeL
Mr. Armitage opposed the appii.:Ati.si nu the ~:rourld
that the police had had ample tune t., get up th,,i,
case, and urged that there was really no cue to
answer, and that there was no reas.m why the „menat
nofowsureaatymitstlz
bid,
hhaeiLian,c,,rei increased.
belifi4thie.prtiehelesarTr was
from Keighley, he would get bait there. tii.l the hen&
would thus hold a double bail over lIIUL The pri-
soner said he could prove that he had kept two
carriages and two yachts. The bench remanded the
prisoner for a week, and increased the bad m fro a
hundred to two hundred poutele for Fact surety.
Several spiritualist friends of the pnakmer from
different towns were in court.