TJie Country Parson. 145 



A sporting parson and a parson who is fond of sport are 

 two very different beings. The man who is constantly 

 drinking and card-playing with his farmers loses their 

 respect and his own ; but one who appears at the covert-side 

 in his black cut-away and white tie, or in the village match ^ 

 and says grace at the cricket dinner, is the right man in the 

 right place, and does a deal of good by his presence, and 

 makes his mark on Sunday, you may be sure. Men like 

 Charles Kingsley, the bold rider, who set his face against 

 vice, and who went to poor old^Cuffey, the Chartist,* because 

 he had no friends, and acquainted himself with the Chartist 

 grievances, are of the right stamp, too ; and so are some of 

 those splendid parsons, old university oarsmen and 

 cricketers, who understand roughs and work amongst the 

 costermongers and the lowest of the London poor, unseen 

 and unknown, who look at poverty and crime as their 

 battle-field. So are some of those on the mission 

 to seamen who go out to ships in the roadsteads 

 in the worst winter weather, one of whom, in advocating 

 the cause of his mission, said, " they only asked for food and 

 shelter, and assured his hearers that some of their body 

 were so poor, that the fishermen and boatmen on his station 

 sent anonymously a pilot coat and a tarpaulin suit for the 

 parson." And don't let us forget the late Bishop Selwyn, 

 formerly of iSTew Zealand, and afterwards of Lichfield, who 

 went on board of a frigate in the Pacific, against the preju- 

 dice of the sailors, and won all their hearts when they found 

 that he could pull as good an oar as they could, and could 

 sail a lugger as well as themselves. And when his cruise was 

 over, and he said a few kind, manly words, the crew asked 

 leave to man the yards and to give him a parting 

 cheer. 



* Cattey was a Mulatto and Chartist leader, who had two year's 

 imprisonment under the Treason Felony Act. 



