190 IDLEHURST : 



only company the young robins and thrushes which 

 haunt the lawn at this season ; Zero away after his 

 own devices, faintly audible in a rabbit-hole two fields 

 off. The parochial reason for the visit was soon 

 despatched. I am a kind of deputy for the Rector 

 as regards my immediate neighbourhood ; partly for 

 handiness and partly because he recognises, as I 

 have found few other clerics to do, those obstacles 

 to intercourse with the flock which the clerical office 

 itself raises, and remembers those sides of the average 

 character which are rarely presented to the parson's 

 view. He has two or three other charges d'affaires in 

 different parts of the parish. Dr. Culpeper is his 

 coadjutor in directions I can only guess at ; of late he 

 has enlisted General Askc under his command ; and 

 it was from a conference with him at the Crossways 

 that he had come on to me at Idlehurst. The General 

 is one of those small, grizzled army men that seem to 

 abound in country places ; for the most part poor, 

 extremely quiet and reserved, high Tory and low 

 Church ; after a year's acquaintance you learn that 

 they led an absurd charge to glory under Nicholson, 

 or saved the guns at Maiwand. General Aske is a 

 good specimen of the breed ; pays his slender bills 

 weekly with great regularity, wears his old clothes 

 and observes old fashions without much concern for 



