60 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



before these gaieties were to take place. Our dramatis per- 

 sonce were all of the male sex, and we had no small difficulty 

 in transforming some of our young hands into lady-like repre- 

 sentatives of Goldsmith's heroines. Indeed, I alluded to 

 this circumstance in my prologue, in the following doggrel : 



Though here in vain the eye may rove in search 

 Of simple chapel, or more sacred church, 

 Yet, come all ye who walk in wisdom's way, 

 And find a school of morals in our play. 

 Come matrons prim, and tender misses all 

 From Johnny Groat's to gates of Leadenhall, 

 Lighten our efforts with your smiles nor fear 

 That aught immoral shall be acted here. 

 Our mimic scene in changeful guise shall show 

 The rough old hand a young and polish' d beau ; 

 And few of all the critics here will tell 

 The nut-brown ensign in the blushing belle. 



Sir Charles arrived in due course. The public dinner 

 given on the occasion was all that could be desired, and the 

 subsequent speeches pithy and appropriate. She Stoops to 

 Conquer, with an extemporized overture by the Rifle corps 

 band, went off pretty well, except that the gentleman who 

 recited my prologue resolutely refused to keep his stops, and 

 thus rendered what was before not over plain perfectly 

 incomprehensible; and that Tony Lumpkins was tipsy de 

 facto instead of de more. Then followed the ball, in which 

 more curious figures were introduced than even modern 

 invention has produced; and then the supper. But I have 

 merely mentioned these circumstances as a preamble to a 

 little adventure that occurred to me subsequently, or rather 

 in consequence of them. 



The supper, as most ball-suppers are, was prolonged to a 

 late, or rather early hour of the morning, when a party of us 

 agreed to turn out on the hills, and try and kill a fox, 

 instead of turning into our beds. A few days previously I 



