A NOVEL SUBJECT FOR THE CHASE. 193 



""What does the fool mean?" asked the huntsman, in a 

 furious passion. 



" Why, I do'an't know what it manes, but I tell ye, when I 

 put the ladder agin the mow, a long-tailed crittur jumped out 

 of the nich of hay, and cut away into yonder copse, and the 

 very sight of un was enow to make anybody holler ; but, dang 

 it ! look — there hur zits in thick big oak." 



And, on the horsemen riding to the wood hedge, a large 

 baboon was seen sitting in the tree, chattering and making 

 faces at his friends below. 



" Ha ! ha ! ha ! " shouted Tom Larking, a leading man in 

 the hunt, " a devilish good joke, Jem, to be halloed on to a 

 monkey ! but, hang it, let's have him out. He'll show us a 

 run, now we have lost our fox. 



" My hounds run a monkey, sir ! " exclaimed Jem, indig- 

 nantly. " They ain't come to that pass yet, any ways." 



u I'll bet five to one they do run him, though, Jem," per- 

 sisted Larkins ; but Jem, fearing mischief, trotted briskly away 

 to find another fox, leaving Jacko to be handled by any one 

 else who fancied him. 



Whatever may be said of Will Beauchamp's system of 

 hunting, the result was that his pack seldom required, 

 and never expected, assistance from their huntsman ; very few 

 foxes being able to escape them. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Foe, some days after, the great run from the Barton Woods was 

 the favourite topic among all sportsmen in that locality ; but 

 the all- engrossing subject to the ladies was the Grand Union 

 Hunt Ball, under the management of a committee chosen from 

 the members of the four adjoining hunts. 



The ball-room at Cherrington being inadequate to contain 

 half the company expected on this great occasion, the Town 

 Hall, which stood over the market house, was put in requisi- 

 tion, and the large space underneath was boarded over and 

 enclosed for a supper-room. The preparations made for this 

 grand re-union of fox-hunters were on a magnificent scale, and 

 the decorations for the rooms costly and appropriate. Being 

 the first thing of the sort attempted in that neighbourhood, the 



M 



