The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-07-15

Warwick town, and grotesquely uni
formed Sergeants at Mace-"robin red
breasts they are locally called-stride
about within the walls OF ancient London
derry precisely as they did before the
long siege. Derby DAY, the memorable
movable feast and outing, and the statu-
tory feast of the Twelfth OF August, are
relgiously kept. Parliament always ad-
Journs for the first, and nothing but i'm
pending national calamity could tempt it
to meet at the time dedicated to the open
ing slaughter of grouse.
Nearly all the old university and Eng
llsh school obServances and customs are
intact. Everybody knows that Guy
tawkes is annually officially and liter
ally searched for in the cellars of Parlia-
ment-house before the opening of Parlia-
ment. The ancient custom OF ''doleing"
1ood and clothing to the poor is still OBJ
served on st. Thomas Day in Kent. That
unlmpeachable custom of universal guz-
Zllng which, in 1874 alone, brought the
national treasury a revenue of G3l 200, 900,
seems to bravely hold its own. over at
Great Yarmouth by the sea you will still
hnd in general use the famous ancient
two-wheeled Yarmouth cart" little,
narrow ana low, and with shafts as long
as Cuban UOtoHte'S. At Coventry the
Town Council meets in st. Mary's Hall,
a structure built for this self-same pur-
pose 600 years ago, and many of the old
est ceremonies are preserved, while
every year brings its Lady Godiva pro-
cessionals upon which Peeping Toms,
with wooden heads and Ieerng eyes,
look down. English lovers still run
away to get married after the ancient
Scotch fashion of consent before wit
nesses at Gretna Green.
over in Derbyshire is still splendidlv
alive the ancient and beautiful ceremony
OF ''well-dressing," and in the heart of
WordswOrth's Land, beside the very
spot where the grand old singer lies, may
be annually seen that sweetest Of all
plous pastoral customs, ''rusn bearing"
ceremony perhaps "a thousand years older
than Christianity ITSELF There are more
mot cross buns" now sold every Good
Friday in England than were ever dis
posed of on that day before the Reforma-
ton. Who can close his eyes or his
pocket to that hoary English custom of
tipping" which holds the classes and
masses so firmly together? That gio-
rlous fountain OF childish pleasure, the
Punch and Judy show, tiourishes every
where in blessed youth perennial. There
is an hundred times the cross-country
riding there was a century ago. Some
time since [ figured out from reliable
data that the rentals of shooting and fish
ing privileges in Scotland alone annually
exceeded 4469, 6l2, or s., 300,0 900! What
must they be for the three Kingdoms, and
who can truly say that these most ancient
and lnspiriting of British sports are fall
ing into decay? What would the boys
and youth of England say to the assertion
that "hare-and- hounds" football, cricket
and even wrestling and putting the
stone" were not UNNECESSARILY more uni
versal and mantully now done than of
yore? And last-because one has to stop
somewhere in a recital which, briefly
made, would fill every column of this
If ut hn
thing for one who had tramped the length
and breadth of the British Isles, as | have
done, TO express the firm belief that, two
to one, there is to-day more ringing clat-
ter OF better hoof, more jingIing Of better
harness, more rafting OF superb coaches
and merrier notes from bugle and horn,
ana this, too, every whit tor pleasure,
along the grand hedge bordered high
ways of Saxons, Gaels and Cells, than
were ever known III Britaln's palmiest
olden coaching days!
EDGAR l.. WAkEMAN.