The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-11 00:00:00

THE SCOTTISH FETE AT HOLLAND

• PARK.
Yesterday was the opening day of this national enter
tainment, which, during the last year or two, has been
advancing to a very good position amongst the tanuse•
meats of the season. • The wretched weather, however,
spailed all. No out-of-door sports could by possibility
have any chance in the face of such repeated deluges as
yesterday pOured down in rapid succession—the intervals
between thehiery heavy rains being filled apby a drearily
uncomfortable drizzle, and the grass and pathways being
of course, as Uncomfortable as grass and pathways could
be. The morning Was lowering and uncertain, and rain
had fallen heavily before the,coramencensent of the pro-
ceedings. Notwithstanding this, however, a rather fair
sprinkling of company had assembled, and it was hoped
that a fine afternoon would attract many more. The spot
occupied, and the general arrangements, were much the
same as those of last year. A succession of open stands
competitors, with a
flanked thegrand stand,which alone was eovered,and round
the fenced-in'
area were ranged several tents for the
convenience of the committee and '
somewhat larger one at a little distance in the park,
devoted to commissariat purposes. The band of the. Fu-
silier Guards was upon the ground, with the juvenile
band of the Scottish Hospital—an admirably instructed
party of yoking musieians—while the performers upon
the national instrument were headed by ?.Ir. Angus
Meckay, the'Queeti's piper. Including competitors and
gentlemen-members of the Scottish Society, and spe-
cially intera-itsd in the games, there might have been
about fifty persons present in the Highland dress, many
of them shoviing perfect specimens of what the costume
of the Gael reedy is in its native and unadulterated sim-
plicity, arid contrasting strikingly with the caricatures
of the Highland garb adopted iu our Highland regi-
ments. Several of the competitors were magnificent
specimens of the genuine mountain breed—not
the pranked up gentlemen one sometimes sees,
who imagine that, to be properly equipped in
the garb in veition, a man must carry half a
jewellsr's shop about him in the shape of brooches.
paystier-horsts; chains, and so forth—but hardy active
fellows, viitli magnificent thews and sinews, especially
great in the' development of calf, and with all that
springy, airy' easiness of pit—mingled, too, with a
certain dignity of step —which invariably reveals the
manbroneht op among the mountains and accustomed
from childhood to the elastic rebound of the heather.
The simple ease of the Highland dress—made in many
cases out of 'home-manufactured materials—was excel-
lently exhibited by the individuals in question, and
the style in which they managed to shelter themselves
with their plaids when the rein came down heavily de-
monstrated (he great availability of the garment as a
protection from the weather, with its extreme handiness
and flexibility, as well as its graceful and picturesque
character. Among the visitors we remarked a good
many foreigners, watching with great interest the pro-
ceedings of tek hontagnards Ecossais.
The platform erected
The procaalings, however, were sadly interfered with
by the rain:—=got that the Highlanders were in tlae smallestl
degree discoinfited by the msre wet, but the ground was
in nsiongsiteastteieZfemneaitnilgy,
menx(eirsco forth,ises.for
had to be abandoned
for the grass; the really tremendous violence of the
showers necessitated dreary waitings; and, in short,
the life and heal of the whole thing was drenched out of
it. The spOrts, such as they were, were all in the
nature of he4ito—this being the decisive day, when yes-
terday's victors will be matched against each other.
There was, as usual, turning the caber, throwing the
hammer and .the stone, running, leaping, and throw-
ing the diSchs, with plenty of dancing, the dreary
weather no appearing , to any way to damp
the uproarious spirit of hilarity which a High-
lander alwaya throws into a thrsesoina or a four-
some reel. Besides the exclusively Scotch sports,
we had wrestling, singlestick, rand there was to have
been a tnorris dance round a Maypole, under the stipsr-
intendence Mr. Elexmore. The performers were
ready dressed all day, but, up to the hour at which we
left the ground, the state of the weather made the notion
of dancing round a MsY pole the most dismal of tragedies.
So we tulipOte it was put off, to be performed under sun-
nier auspices. One of the best teaturss of the day's
amusement was al race in sacks, which created the
most bo6teiotta mirth, even in the teeth of the all-cle•