Early in May I left my village to enjoy a taste of gipsy life in earnest—a week on the road.
Matilda is a splendid mare, and a very handsome one. Strong and all though she be, there was in my mind a doubt as to whether she could drag the Wanderer on day after day at even the rate of ten miles in the twenty-four hours.
It had been raining the night before, and as the road from our yard leads somewhat up hill, it was no wonder that the immense caravan stuck fast before it got out of the gate. This was a bad beginning to a gipsy cruise, and, as a small concourse of neighbours had assembled to witness the start, was somewhat annoying. But a coal-carter’s horse came to the rescue, and the start was finally effected.
Matilda took us through Twyford at a round trot, and would fain have broken into a gallop, but was restrained. But the long hill that leads up from the Loddon bridge took the extra spirit out of her, and she soon settled down to steady work.
There is a pretty peep of Reading to be caught from the top of the railway bridge. No traveller should miss seeing it.
Rested at Reading, our smart appearance exciting plenty of curiosity. It was inside that the crowd wanted to peep—it is inside all crowds want to peep, and they are never shy at doing so.
The town of Reading is too well-known to need description; its abbey ruins are, however, the best part of it, to my way of thinking.
The day was as fine as day could be, the sky overcast with grey clouds that moderated the sun’s heat.
Our chosen route lay past Calcot Park, with its splendid trees, its fine old solid-looking, redbrick mansion, and park of deer. This field of deer, I remember, broke loose one winter. It scattered in all directions; some of the poor creatures made for the town, and several were spiked on railings. The people had “sport,” as they called it, for a week.
It was almost gloomy under the trees that here overhang the road. Matilda was taken out to graze, the after-tent put up, and dinner cooked beneath the caravan. Cooked! ay, and eaten too with a relish one seldom finds with an indoor meal!