Market Harborough, and Inside the Bar

A pair of linked stories follows an English sporting gentleman who travels to the shires and becomes involved in hunting, racing, and local social life; vivid sketches of stableroom characters, horse-dealing, hunts, a race and a match, and rural entertainments reveal customs and rivalries among country squires and grooms. The narrative alternates comic portraiture and action scenes — rides, a leaky wet night, a ball, competitions and bargains — while exploring devotion to horses, the codes of sport, and provincial manners. Episodes center on Mr. Sawyer and other personalities whose foibles and loyalties shape a lively depiction of equestrian culture and small-town social hierarchies.