11 May 1863 – 17 May 1863

13. — Lymington Pleasure Fair. Booths in the streets with toys and sweets, noise and clatter. Shows — some monkeys and a wild boar, a ' Zulu Caffir ' ; fat woman (leaving her baby behind the scenes) does conjuring tricks — Dancing-booth — Shooting-galleries. Gypsies — black-eyed girls in tawdry bright attire, brown old witches, gypsy young man lithe and tall, wonder- fully handsome animal, a black panther — and about as trustworthy ^ How Oriental these people keep I The English rustic, getting drunk, bellows discordant songs, tumbles down and snores, the Irishman quarrels and strikes. Perhaps the kind of drink has something to do with it. Pothouse beer is bad, but raw public- house whisky is a frightful potation. What a country is Ireland ! her chief manufacture is Calamity Water ^ a name too of her own devisal.