Conspiracy is at hand, for while the crowd watches the track, "a gang of seven or eight, or more, set up a table, but they all appear strangers to each other." It's here that peas or peppercorns are placed under three thimbles. Come take a look. Can you guess which one has, or lacks, a thimble? Of course you can. The proprietor loses, and "he pays the losings freely, and the other members of this joint-stock company affect to laugh at him."
Surely you can win a little money at this easy game. Look--the pea rolled out from underneath that thimble! That one--yes, I'll bet there's no pea under that one! But behold!--there it is, still, "the fellow having dexterously slipped another under it when the first rolled off the table." One variant of this ruse is the shell game, and a modern version replaces the old-fashioned thimbles with plastic cups. [EDBv1]
June 9 - Walk, don't run, to the local park or garden and see what summer offers. For June 9, a meditation on foot traffic in delightful spots. Kensington Gardens "has now suddenly started into vogue once more...and you may (weather willing) gladden your gaze with such a galaxy of beauty and fashion as no othe period or place. Vauxhall Gardens is a species to be seen at night. "Beneath the full meridian of midnight, what is like them, except some parts of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments?"
Letters have been written by schoolchildren, promising distant friends a visit during summer vacation--now, only to nail down the date! On Sundays, you might see whole regiments of girls and boys singing and walking, if you know where to look. Now, on fine evenings, go. Walk. [EDBv2]
June 10 - Blushing brides now have a lovely reception hall available, the old Maison de Dieu licensed by Henry IV on June 10, 1412. You'd better hurry, though, as it's being torn down in 1823. For centuries, this House of God provided food and clothing to the poor. It was built by Roger Thornton in Newcastle, England. His son "granted the use of its hall and kitchen for a young couple when they were married to make their wedding dinner in, and receive the offerings and gifts of their friends, for at that time houses were not large." 
-Dear, where did you put the lovely set of bowls that your brother gave us? I've packed everything and I can't find them.
-Did you look in the hutch?
-Do you mean the chest at the foot of the bed?
-Yes, the hutch!
-Do you mean the shelves with the precious things on them?
-No, the hutch! [EDBv2]
June 11 - Today, a poem from Sir John Bowring on "The Blessings of Instruction:"
Hast thou e'er seen a garden clad
In all the robes that Eden had;
Or vale o'erspread with streams and trees,
A paradise of mysteries;
Plains with green hills adorning them,
Like jewels in a diadem?
These gardens, vales, and plains, and hills,
Which beauty gilds and music fills,
Were once but deserts. Culture's hand
Has scattered verdure o'er the land,
And smiles and fragrance rule serene,
Where barren wild usurped the scene.
And such is man--A soil which breeds
Or sweetest flowers, or vilest weeds;
Flowers lovely as the morning's light,
Weeds deadly as an aconite;
Just as his heart is trained to bear
The poisonous weed, or flow'ret fair.
Also a translator and an MP, foreign dictionaries would have been his main expense. Alas, he came and went before 1911. Not even a chance for a duck-house! [EDBv2]
Image from ALEXANDER ARGUELLES' GUIDE TO POLYGLOTTERY
June 12 - It's the time of the season for shearing. Step 1: dunk the sheep, one by one, into the pool where the mill-stream bends. Confused splashing! Then, after a moment, "their heavy fleeces float them along, and their feet, moving by an instinctive art which every creature but man possesses, gude them towards the opposite shallows, that steam and glitter in the sunshine." After a rude washing, "they stand for a moment till the weight of the water leaves them, and, shaking their streaming sides, go bleating away towards their fellows on the adjacent green, wondering within themselves what has happened."
Shearing-time, as a marker for rural festivals, outlived the "harvest-home" in some places. As a kind of work that relies on an assembly of people, and observed by the idlers of the village, shearing was an activity that naturally ramped down into eating and socializing.
This living picture was "pleasanter to look upon than words can speak, but still pleasanter to think of, when that is the nearest approach you can make to it." Once the old ways are clipped away, only the zombies remain--and wool they grasp and grab finds no audience with pleasured hands. [EDBv2]
Image from BBC - Wiltshire - History
June 13 - Before verse got high-falutin' and turned into poetry, there was doggerel. A few lines here and there could dress up a business sign. Witness this one, outside an alehouse, decorated with a picture of a man holding up a fish:
This salmon has got a tail
It's very like a whale,
It's a fish that's very merry,
They say it's catch'd at Derry;
It's a fish that's got a heart,
It's catch'd and put in Dugdale's cart.
Doggerel can come in the form of rude jokes - such as limericks - or serve as modern commentary. [EDBv2]
June 14 - Does Frommer's have this travel tip? For June 14, Hone publishes a letter showing how to get from town to town for free (with patience).
It seems a certain John Kilburn, quite broke down and without transportation, devised this system. "He applied to an acquaintance of his, a blacksmith, to stamp on a padlock the words 'Richmond Gaol,' whith which, and a chain fixed to one of his legs, he composedly went into a corn-field to sleep." When discovered by a law enforcement officer, he was whisked off to Richmond. The jailkeeper, knowing old Kilburn, said that he never harmed anyone, and the wise-acre produced a key. "He travelled in this way about one hundred and seventy miles."
Three dollars could certainly buy one a gallon of gas - but they could also buy enough paint for a fake inmate shirt. [EDBv2]
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