Show ENGLISH AT PLAY Outdoor Amusements as Seen by General Gen-eral Eadean Life at an English Country HouseScenes in the Ranting JField OldTIme Lawn Tennis Time out of mind the English have been noted for their fondness for outdoor amusements It is an undoubted fact that outdoor sports have contributed to the health and vigor of the English race to the strength of its armies and the stability sta-bility of its institutions The stamina acquired in the hunting field and on the I moor on ball ground and boat course I was found useful in the Crimea as in many a previous war and has furnished I material for the mental and moral power which depends on physique much as on I pure spiritin man During ten or twelve years that I lived in England nothing struck me more forcibly than this universal love for out u z7 S 0 i 4i1 Jw Qr t 4q A HOUSE BOAT PARTY residencesits carefully cultivated beauties beau-ties themselves a proof of the English appreciation ap-preciation of the country Gladstone though he never shoots or hunts is a good rider even now and his historic ax at Hawarden has hewn down trees as firmly rooted in British soil as the wrongs and abuses he still hacks in parliament Beaconsfield His greatest rival was neither sportsman nor farmer he loved nothing natural but he felt obliged to defer to the English taste and his enemies ene-mies taunted him with wearing country clothes and aping country customs going II to market dinners that he hated and discussing dis-cussing crops that he never raised to make believe he was ngenuine country sQuire Every Briton loves a race or a contest of any sort London is emptied on the Derby day and as the crowds return from Epsom in the long June twilight the great houses in Grosvenor place are hung with tapestry and gay carpets to celebrate the national fete Drags driven by lords and carts by butchers hansoms crowded some with dandies others with members of the swell mob are huddled together covered with dust the men of fashion wearing light blue veils and very many fashionable and unfashionable drunk aa lords The same crowds attend the boat race at Easter when Oxford and Cambridge contend for the championship The match is of universal interest and if the tide serves atvearly morning and in a blinding snow storm the finpst folk in London are up betimes and drive down to Putney at an hour when they are often I j turning imo their beds after a ball The Eton boys too have their boat race on the 4th of June it is good form to be seen there and in their short jackets and high hats and wide collars they strut I about amid crowds of belles for that one day the object of more attention than dukes orcabinet ministers Atthe very height of the London season sea-son coma the great cricket matches between be-tween the rival universities and the two historic schools Eton and Harrow all faking placein the heart of London and before as many important men and highborn high-born women as a joust or tournament in the time of Ivanhoe Even the two houses of parliament contend against each other on the cricket grqund more good naturedly often than at Westminster Westmin-ster Tennis was revived while I was in Eng land it had been forgotton for generations genera-tions though very popular in the time of I the Henrys and afterward under the James Croquet the curates game as it was called had been its immediate predecessor pre-decessor so simple and harmless that I even the clergy might take a mallet but it was never so popular as the latest favorite fa-vorite I first saw tennis in 1877 at theo I the-o s of the mayor of Liverpool when S I I j 2 cy4 L I I I I LUqil ij l if Y I f m rIff Y cc rqi I tl J rw I i v tf EIDIHG TO HOT7XDS door pleasure It extends from the throne to the cottage and characterizes not only the nobility and the landedgentry but the professional and mercantile classes not only those who live in the country but the tradesmen and mechanics and manufacturing manu-facturing people of the towns the domestic do-mestic servants of the great thestudents and professars of the universities the commercial travelers and the members of parliament The u omen as well as tho I men like the open air and ride and I drive and walk for amusement1 far more I than those ol any other country in the I world The queen drives nearly every day of I her life and for years she used to ride After she was 60 years old those who had access to theHome yartat Windsor could I see her jogging along on a cob with John Brown in attendance in the long rides and glades of that most delightful royal General Grant was his guest Archery however I is an amusemant in which ladies engage Parties are often given in the country which all the gentry of the neighborhood attend and many of the young women fashion are very fair archers They make a pretty picture these aristocratic Dianas with their bows and quivers and their uniforms in white and green and their attitudes often as graceful those of their mythological prototype Thti English belles take every opportunity to enjoy themselves out of doors they ride well and look their best on a horse so they attend the meets of the hounds and often follow to the death They accompany the shooters sometimes ou the moors they > are at all tha races and matches even those for rifle shooting on Wimbledon common they tire seen at reviews and military maneuvers and when they can do no better they walk sis or seven miles tin their parks of an afternoon and in mackintoshes and heavy boots if it rains for the weather does not keep English women indoors I spent a week once near Balmoral and passed the queen driving every day rain or shine Of late years the bicycler have introduced intro-duced a new outofdoor amusement The admirable English roads are precisely adapted for this sport and thousands of young Englishmen mostly of the middle class seem to enjbY it vastly I recall a bicycle meet in Barley Park which was an extraordinary spectacle As you drove up to the nark you passed the riders formiles drawn up on the roadside road-side waitingto fall in line dismounted and each by his iron steed Finally they marched four abreast through the great avanues of chestnuts and amid crowds of admiring spectators displayed their skill in the novel horsemanship All wore the uniform of some club and they made a sight worth seeing Some of the Iddies have adopted Vricycl in the country coun-try The eounte s Granville used to pay her visits in thisway with a footman following A The boating onthe Thames a charming charm-ing feature English life All summer long and late injo the autumn the historic I river Is coverewith craft of every variety va-riety suited Jjnt8 placid waters I once I I had QJ boatini partyof my own that I t enjoyed imirjpnselyTwo sons of Thomaa I J Hughes thJ authorof Tom Brown at 1i S < r j I G S iI SS l r > r Rugby boys at the time of 14 or 15 were great friends of mine and I invited them togo down to Osford with meand then take a boat and tow to London about 100 miles The trip took us three days we stoppedat night at inns on the river bank and lunched in the open air where we > leased 5 We passed hundreds of punts barges launches skiffs wherries and cauoes At least half had young women for passengers pas-sengers if not for crews and men and women crews and passengers all were in boating costumestraw hats and flannols and gray parasols and abovQ all youth and grace and vigor rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes i Boating however like bicycling is rather a middleclass amusement the aristocracy havetheir yachts and their I hounds and their steeds one nobleman I that I visited kept eighty horses in his stables for his lamily and his guests another an-other owned a whole country that was given up to deer forests and grouse moors and hundreds of thousands of acres are held by a dozen proprietors exclusively for game Yet the poorest Englishmen are as keen in their loe of outdoor snorts as these magnates On the holidays at Whitsuntide and on the let of August which corresponds to our Labor Day the whole population of the towns is poured out into the country their first idea of pleasure is to get into green fields and I under orreen trees The nobilitv are very complaisant and allow their great parks to be thrown open to picnics and pleasure seekers of every grade I have known an earl to give upthe choicest spot when he wanted it himself to a crowd of the humblest sort and the peasant often has a right of way across themostsecmestered glades or under the castle walls Of all the English amusements riding is the most popular Every Englishman I who can afford it keeps a horse racing attracts the greatest crowds from towns and hunting from the country Viscounts Vis-counts and dukes drive public stage rt 1II 1 l J 4b J i jlg I 1Iiif il f i < Jf t Il i r 1 1 l ltl 5 Ml I IN HYDE PARK coaches sometimes an entire season for tho pleasure of it and Rotten Row is the most famous resort of fashion in London The young Englishmen sit like centaurs in their polo playIng their steeplechas ing their hurdle jumping their fox hunt i lug I was once at a house in the Gram pians with two young cousins of the I queen descendants of William IV Each was the heir to an earluorn and an J ancient name They were never happier hap-pier than when on a horse One after L 1 1 noon toe youngsters amusea a large party for hours with their antics on the road They frolicked in their kilts side by side sometimes both on the same horSe sometimes with their faces to the tail sometimes lying back to back on their ponies they stood in their saddles and grasped each others shoulders one leg in the air they parodied a hunt and one chased the other at full speed one was the game and tho other the huntsman I finally the game waS brought down and flung across the horses back their Highland High-land ponies all the while galloping as hard as their masters played and enjoying enjoy-ing the sport as weH Spirits anJ grace and good looks all come from these sports and good feeling feel-ing too The nation is better and happier hap-pier its pJ pie of every class more united and contended because of the outdoor amusements One of these youths was my host and while I was wth him marched over the mountains afoot at the I head of his men to a gathering the 1 I clans and not one or nis loiiowers out was proud of his young chief who today if Duke of Fife and soninlaw of the I Prince oi Vales ADAM BADEAU |