AFTER DARK IN THE CAMP AT WIMBLEDON.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 875, 17 October 1871, Page 3

AFTER DARK IN THE CAMP AT WIMBLEDON.

i" Daily News.") A peregrination through the camp' •when darkness has fallen, and when the hour is advancing towards •' lights •out,",is fall of interestand amusement. From the camp of the Loudon Irish echo the wild plaintive strains of "' Kathleen Mavourneen " or a racketty •ditty recounting the exploits of a wonderful gentleman who fortified with a sprig of shillelagh, partook himself to •that frantic carnival, the Limerick Races. Next door live our worthy :and thirsty allies of Belgium. Their mess tent, where a continuouslunchoon (has been <on foot from early morn till 'dewy eve, is resonant with the chirpy •sounds of '" Eep, 'eep, euraye," which imay 'be 'considered the Belgian syn<onymforthe British Hip, Hip Hurrah l . 'To 'the accumulated distraction of the <evening atmosphere the -37 th Middlesex eontiSbute the twang of the banjo, •the rattle of the bones, and a vocifer-. <ous 'celebration of the praises of a •certain avuncular relative of the name ■of Ned, who, it would appear, has de•parted in the direction pursued by all •deserving :gentlemon of colour. From the London Scottish camp comes on the light <night wind the skirl ©f the ■pipes accentuated by the wild ' henghs' ■with which the Scots signalise the •climax of their Baltatory exploits, alternated by the measured "' thud, thud,' <of the footsteps of some dhuinnewassle j •def ty threading the difficult maze of 'Gillie Galium or the sword dance. The j shoeblack brigade, their labours over for the >day, their brush-arms •at rest, and their blacking-pots covered an for the night, have thrown open the' front-of their tent, and are treating •such as choose to listen to an amateur •concert of an artless and simple character. The shoeblacks have pleasant fresh voices, and understand part-sing-ing, but they exhibit a tendency to Tun chronically into an ignobleohbrus with V hum-tidy-um rt as its burden, •which is scarcely worthy of members of the profession who have advanced to the dignity of uniform. In the Pavilion tent two separate '"free and easies" are in full swing. Chairman of one is a rugged faced man with a bright red beard—a stalwart extract from the regions where the wild heather blooms and the red •deer roams. His role lies in such strains of the mountains as the " Macgregors'- Gathering" and the " March ■of the Cameron Men," and around his table, seated and standing, are -grouped a large proportion of the many Scots now in camp. Everybody seems to know everybody's Christian name, and from the prevalence of V Jocks," ** Wullies," and "Sandies," there would seem to be a curtailed range of baptismal appellations in the territory north of the Tweed. At •another table international fraternisation is flowing gushingly. Britons and Belgians sit alternately round the festive board, and the conversation is •of the patch order, diversified with pantomime. In one of the Cis Glen Allyn Camys somebody is playing on the piano, and in the Guards' Camp a "hairy soldier, seated in the mouth of a tent, is rivalling " Old Rosin tho Bow," in his performance on the violin. But -Tegulations step in to stay the festivities and the conviviality. Gunfire stays tho song and arrests the progress of the revel, and " lie down" follows with a prompitude which must take hy surprise those who are given to procrastination in *• feeling," Soon after a procession sets forth from the camp—not a picket of armed men, nor a patrol of caped policemen; but a procession, on wheels consisting of three wagonettes, containing the deft damsels, thirty-and-three in number, who from seven to gunfire perform with nimble civility the duties of the refreshment bar. For their accommodation the Warren Farm, a sequestered home some two miles away from the camp, has been taken and fitted up, and thither every night they are conveyed, as- has been said, in waggonettes, under the escort of a couple of policemen to secure them from molestation, and brought back in the morning in the same manner.