Victorian Fair at Kenwood House

The same weekend that the Wimbledon 'Traditional' Fair took place, a Victorian-style fair was taking place at Kenwood House. This one felt more traditional in the sense that people dressed period-appropriate and we got to see traditional games and horse-riding and an old-fashioned camera.

This lady was dressed up to be the Queen's Lady-in-Waiting. Very nice costume, though.
Not sure who this dude was supposed to be. He was dressed up like a soldier from the Indian (yet British) army, but he never talked.
This woman was supposed to be the Queen. Queen Victoria, I think, but I'm not entirely sure.
Here you can see the grounds of Hampstead Heath with Kenwood House in the background and children playing cricket in the foreground. The original parts of Kenwood House date from the 17th Century, although additions were made in the 18th Century. The movie Notting Hill was partially filmed at the house. We didn't get the chance to go inside, but I will return to do that in the future.
They had a bunch of guys dressed up in army wear, trying to 'recruit' the locals. Heh.
This was part of a display on the rations that a soldier would bring with them. Although you can't see close up in the photo, there are tinned meats and other gross things. Spam of the past, I imagine.

They had a presentation where they scared puppies and old people with a rousing display of firearms.


After which they had the horse games. This fellow on his one eyed horse (see the third picture - there's no eye there!), was attempting to break a peg with a long pointy stick. Pretty impressive stuff.
This woman was pretty impressive - jumping side saddle and all. Doesn't look easy, but looks awful graceful.
This would be the 'pig-sticking' well... er... 'frog-sticking'. If you look closely that's a stuffed frog he's poking. It would've originally been some kind of pig that the horse rider would hunt down and poke (assumingly to death), but here in modern times we love animals so we're attacking the stuffed variety.
This was part of the 'teacup' race, which was a rally involving all sorts of items, including a parasol.
This was an impressive getup. The lady rider had to jump the table, while grabbing a glass of water (would've been champagne I imagine) from the man without spilling too much water.
And she did it!

I enjoy seeing the horse with one eye - he turns his head slightly so that he can see where he is going.
It's a pretty impressive feat to horse jump, side saddle with a parasol. Yikes!
I snapped this photo right before the poor woman and her horse slipped and tumbled over. Fortunately no one was hurt, although you can see from this picture that the horse is quite, well, tilty. Heh.

This fair was quite a bit of fun -much more fun than the Wimbledon fair. I definitely enjoyed the horse riding.