against the wall; they puffed pipes until they
were almost invisible in clouds of tobacco-smoke;
they disposed of their brass instruments in the
window, until the hostelry looked, from the
outside, like a military trumpet-maker's shop.
Their faces were flushed with beer, if not with
anticipated triumph, and they were encouraged
to seek victory by the presence of certain gentle
beings who had sworn to wear their colours to
the last. A couple of Yorkshire " Arabs" had
somehow drifted up from some city of large
population in the county, and, while one offered
to clean boots at a penny a pair, the other stood
up with his nose just above the beer mugs on a
table, and sang a popular song, until a member
of a brass band extinguished him with the mouth
of a yawning ophicleide. I am sorry to have to
admit, in all candour, that these were the only
two boys in the village who seemed quite capable
of making me out.

I now give the rules and the programme, as
they were given in excellent print to me:

REGULATIONS.

"That the district shall embrace all villages within
a distance of thirty miles. That each band intending
to compete shall consist of not more than fourteen
members, each member having been enrolled in the
said band at least three months before contesting.
That each band shall have the privilege of choosing
one piece of music, the other to be selected by the
judge. That no professional shall be allowed to
play with any band."

LOFTHOUSE GRAND VILLAGE BAND CONTEST.
On Friday, September 30, 1859.

N.B.—- Placards announcing the name of each
band, as they play, will be displayed upon the platform;
reference then can be made to the programme.
The order of playing will be decided previously by
drawing lots.

PROGRAMME.

Test piece, to be played by each of the bands—-
           " Grand Parade March"      .       .      .      Jones.
AISLABY BRASS BAND, 9 Performers.—- Leader, Mr.
                                  R. Corney.
Selection   .        " La Somnambula"   .       .        Bellini.
BILSDALE BRASS BAND, 12 Performers.—Leader, Mr.
                                       W. Hart.
Selection     .           " Twelfth Mass"    .         .    Mozart.
FARNDALE BRASS BAND, 11 Performers.—- Leader,
                                 Mr. Potter.
Selection   .          " Lucrezia Borgia"       .       Donizetti.
GUISBRO' BRASS BAND, 12 Performers.—Leader, Mr.
                                     Bannister.
Selection       .          " II Trovatore"       .       .      Verdi.
LOFTHOUSE SAX-HORN BAND, 10 Performers.—-
                         Leader, Mr. J. Walker.
Hallelujah Chorus      .      .      .      Handel's Messiah.
           The contest will commence at one o'clock.

The first three of these bands were what is
called " moor-bands;" that is, a troop of
performers collected in a straggling district of
cottages, extending from ten to twenty miles, the
inhabitants of which have proportionately few
opportunities for practising music together.
The Guisboro' band has the good fortune to
come from a town that boasts a railway terminus,
and which can scarcely be called a village; while
the Lofthouse Sax-horn company was the only
strictly " village" band that was entered for the
musical contest.

The whole village, though it could not quite
make out all the important points in the combat,
was quite willing to stand still, with its hands in
its pockets, and to give itself up to gazing at
everything and everybody, and the moderate
dissipation of an extemporised fair. The daddies
(and what village is without a dozen of them?)
crawled up and down the hilly street with blinking,
smiling satisfaction; while the grannies
(and what village is also without a dozen of
them?) conferred with each other across cottage
garden palings. The children assembled round
every object of the slightest show or interest, in
speechless astonishment, and listened wherever
there was one man speaking to another.

The individual who seemed to take in the
whole festival with a quiet grasp of intellect,
was a dusty, yellow-coloured quarryman—- or
something of that kind—- who was returning
home to dinner from his morning's work. He
said nothing, although he stood in the midst of
a (Lofthouse) crowd; but the twinkle of his
eye, and the saucy tilt of his ragged cap, spoke
volumes, even without words. His jacket was
flung over his shoulder, in the form of a soldier's
breast-belt; and in his hand he held dangling a
tin can, like a small oil-can, which was most
probably devoted to his daily allowance of tea.
He looked as if his body had been buried in
clay three parts of his life, without destroying
his sense of enjoyment, or his belief that whatever
is, is right. The children gathered round
him, as round one who was evidently good at
thinking, and who might possibly give utterance
to something that it would not be well to lose.
Their expectations, however, were doomed to be
disappointed, for, after regarding the Golden
Lion, the assembled bands, and the spectators
at the opposite cottages, with another eye
twinkle, and another meaning smile, he walked
slowly down the village kill at the Whitby end,
as he had walked slowly up the other hill at the
Redcar end, swinging his tea-can jauntily at
his side, and dragging his heavily- booted legs
after him, but making no further sign.

At length the time approached for the
musical struggle, and the order was given to
desert the rum-glass and the ale-can, and to
march to the meadow, where the judge and the
orchestra were ready. This was done in noble
style, each band of performers playing its own
favourite march, in its own favourite way, and
being headed by its own favourite musical
vivandières. This time it was the turn of the oxen
in an adjoining paddock to be thoroughly
astonished, and, after regarding the troop of
visitors and players with becoming gravity, they
evidently came to the usual Lofthouse verdict,
that they were not able to make it out. The
four or five policemen from the different villages
were disposed of round the meadow, and their
first duty, as usual, was to chase unruly boys, who
dodged behind hedges instead of paying sixpence,
and coming in by the legal entrance, up a lane.

The judge got into a bathing-machine, which