3 i8 WOLF-HUNTING. 



shin-kicking which, in the days of Cann and Polkinghorn, often 

 inflicted severe punishment on the legs of our West-country heroes ; 

 still, the back kick of the Breton, horny and hardened as the heel 

 is by its contact with the sabot, was no child's play, and served 

 frequently to help the man most adroit in its use to bring his 

 adversary to his knees and weaken the hold that seemed to root 

 him to the ground. Barring the hubbub of the bagpipes and 

 kettledrums, it was in every respect a quiet and orderly meeting ; 

 no drunkenness, no foul play, and no savage wrangling. Two or 

 three priests were present, and by their influence on the peasant 

 mind served, doubtless, to keep the crowd under salutary restraint 

 with respect to drink and licentious behaviour. I could not but 

 infer, too, from the little interest they took in the " play," that the 

 object of their attendance was rather to act as Censores morum 

 than from any wish to view the spectacle, or indicate partizanship 

 with any particular wrestler in his struggle for victory ; still, there 

 was a kind, pleasant-faced priest looking on whose eyes twinkled 

 luminously as one of his parishioners stepped out of the ring, 

 prize in hand, and followed by the plaudits of the admiring 

 crowd. 



This intermixing of the clerical with the lay population, the 

 shepherds with the sheep of their flocks, in such innocent and 

 manly games, might be extended, I venture to think, with the 

 utmost advantage to both parties in other countries besides that 

 of Lower Brittany ; for, where excesses and bad language are 

 checked by the presence of a clergyman, there he cannot be out 

 of place, either in behalf of his own work or for the good of the 

 company in which he is found mixing. My old friend Bob 

 Buckstone thought so too, or, honest and conscientious as he was 

 in all that appertained to his duty as a curate, he never would 

 have devoted two days a week to the mere pastime of fox-hunting, 

 if he had not been convinced that his little parish, numbering but 

 thirty inhabitants, suffered no neglect from this practice ; that in the 



