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CHAPTER XXII. 



Mr. Charles Booth Elmsall Wright, 1901 

 TO Present Time. 



It takes but little to raise a laugh in a court 

 of law, and a company at the covert side is still 

 more easily amused. When the name of the 

 new Master was first bruited abroad, a member 

 of a little group assembled at the corner of a 

 wood, having casually observed, " I hear Mr. 

 Wright has taken the hounds," some shameless 

 punster responded with " Ah, yes, you see we 

 were Swindell'd, then we were Dunn, and now 

 we are going to be put to Wright." The 

 retiring Master and his predecessor in office, 

 both happened to be amongst the coterie, and 

 their presence no doubt inspired the sally, for 

 it will be noticed that the licensed jester, as in 

 this case, always chooses the most genial and 

 popular members of society as a target for his 

 harmless and sometimes pointless joke, moved 

 thereto no doubt by an unduly keen apprecia- 

 tion of the paramount importance of his own 

 personal safety. In this case, of course, the 



