The Country Parson. 141 



" By minding my own business and trying to do my duty/' 

 was the answer. " As you know, I was never meant for the 

 Church, but this was a family Hving, and I had it ; and 

 when I began I liked the country, and liked the hunting, 

 but I very soon found that a man who is a man ought to 

 do his work ; and plenty I had to do. The farmers were 

 mostly fond of hunting, and were not sorry to see that I 

 went to the meet once or twice a week, but I found that 

 some of them were very loose, and very hard on the poor • 

 and they soon discovered that I didn't care about their 

 market-ordinary tales and flash stories, and though I enjoyed 

 a run with the hounds, I meant to do so like a gentleman. 

 Some of the magistrates were very hard on the poachers — 

 not your London gang men, but the unfortunate half- 

 starved fellows who found a snared hare and pocketed it ; 

 and what with talking to one and another, and a kind word 

 here and there, I got on without quarrelling. And then, 

 thinking I ought to teach in the school, I got accustomed 

 to it and fond of it, and liked the village children. The 

 secret of leading people is easy enough, if 3'ou make up your 

 mind that they won't be driven. I took an interest, too, 

 in preserving the foxes, and consoled the old women for loss 

 of ducks and chickens ; and the magistrates set that off 

 against my pleading for the small poachers and putting in 

 a word or two for a misdemeanant, pledging myself for his 

 better behaviour. But I attribute my success jorincipally 

 to one thing, which is this : I set my face against meddling 

 and faction and sensation, and, although often urged to 

 have anti-papal meetings, and evangelical alliances, and 

 heaven knows what besides, by all kinds of people, I kept 

 aloof from them all. Some clerical secretary wrote to me a 

 long time since, and said the bishop expected all his clei-gy 

 to petition against opening the British Museum and similar 

 places on a Sunday, and sent me a petition deploring *' the 



