with them to the fair.  They came with their brooms and mops, just as a carter would tie a piece of whipcord to his coat, and a shepherd’s hat would be decorated with a tuft of wool.  Time was when the labouring man was never happy unless he changed his abode from year to year.  He would get tired of one master and one village, and be off to Cirencester mop, where he was pretty sure to get a fresh job.  But nowadays the Cotswold men are beginning to realise that “Two removes are as bad as a fire.”  The best of them stay for years in the same village.  This is very much more satisfactory for all concerned.  Deeply rooted though the love of change appears to be in the hearts of nine-tenths of the human race, the restless spirit seldom enjoys real peace and quiet; and the discontent and poverty of the labouring class in times gone by may safely be attributed to their never-ceasing changes and removal of their belongings to other parts of the country.

Now that these old fairs no longer answer the purpose for which they existed for hundreds of years, they will doubtless gradually die out.  And they have their drawbacks.  An occasion of this kind is always associated with a good deal of drunkenness; the old market-place of Cirencester for a few days in each autumn becomes a regular pandemonium.  It is marvellous how quickly all traces of the great show are swept away and the place once more settles down to the normal condition of an old-fashioned though well-to-do country town.

There are many old houses in Cirencester of more than average interest, but there is nothing as far as we know that needs special description.  The Fleece Hotel is one of the largest and most beautiful of the mediaeval buildings.  It should be noted that some of the new buildings in this town, such as that which contains the post office, have been erected in the best possible taste.  With the exception of some of the work which Mr. Bodley has done at Oxford in recent years, notably the new buildings at Magdalen College, we have never seen modern architecture of greater excellence than these Cirencester houses.  They are as picturesque as houses containing shops possibly can be.

HUNTING FROM CICETER.

But it is as a hunting centre that Ciceter is best known to the world at large, and in this respect it is almost unique.  The “Melton of the west,” it contains a large number of hunting residents who are not mere “birds of passage,” but men who live the best part of the year in or near the town.  The country round about, from a hunting point of view, is good enough for most people.  Five days a week can be enjoyed, over a variety of hill and vale, all of which is “rideable”; nor can there be any question but that the sport obtainable compares favourably with that enjoyed in the more grassy Midlands.  Not that there is much plough round about Cirencester nowadays; agricultural depression has diminished the amount of arable in recent years.  The best grass country round about, however, with the exception of the Crudwell and Oaksey district, rides decidedly deep.  The enclosures are small and the fences rough and straggling.