She was not exacting.
During her stay at Mallowe in the summer, Lady Maria always gave a village treat.

She had given it for forty years, and it was a lively function.

Several hundred wildly joyous village children were fed to repletion with exhilarating buns and cake, and tea in mugs, after which they ran races for prizes, and were entertained in various ways, with the aid of such of the house-party as were benevolently inclined to make themselves useful.
Everybody was not so inclined, though people always thought the thing amusing.

Nobody objected to looking on, and some were agreeably stimulated by the general sense of festivity.

But Emily Fox-Seton was found by Lady Maria to be invaluable on this occasion.