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with those who never drank a glass of ale or grog, just as 

 he had no affection for those who cared only for the pageant 

 of the chase. " Gentlefooak," he once said, with a sigh for 

 the disappearing " good old days," " gentlefooak, don't 

 drink now-a-days. Ah think they mun 'a'e takken ta lappin' 

 up tooth watter i' ther bedrooms instead." Mr. Duucombe, 

 who tells this story, adds : " Jack himself could not be accused 

 of excessive indulgence in beverages of this innocent de- 

 scription, but his potations seldom had any visible effect 

 on him. He rode hard and drank hard for the greater part 

 of his life, and lived beyond the Scripture limit, having 

 hunted hounds to within a year of his death." He was 

 never found wanting the next morning, however great his 

 Bacchanalian worship the previous evening, like the sports- 

 man in the old song (1752), who said : — 



I cannot get up, ye overnight's cup 



So terribly lies on my head, 



Besides, my dear wife says. " My dear, do not rise," 



" But cuddle me longer abed, my dear boy, 



" But cuddle me longer abed.'' 



Parker must have had a wonderful constitution. 



The late Sir Charles Slingsby used to tell a good story 

 regarding Jack in his cups. In the Sixties, when Sir Charles 

 was Master of the York and Ainsty, and Mr. T. M. Kendall 

 at the head of the Sinnington, he often went to Helmsley to 

 stay with a nephew then in rooms, and went on fishing 

 expeditions with him. On one occasion, in the Sixties, he 

 brought with him some terriers which he was very anxious 

 to try at badgers. No one around Helmsley, or for many miles 

 distant, knew so much about, or had had, so much sport with 

 brock as Jack Parker, and he was nothing loth to have a 

 moonlight hunt with Sir Charles. Arrangements were made, 

 some earths which were known to be regularly used were 

 prepared in the orthodox manner, a sack containing a running 

 noose in the mouth being secured at the entrance to the hole. 

 Jack turned up after a carouse at Kirbymoorside, and was 

 what is known in the vernacular as " fresh." This did not 

 in any way interfere with the sport. One or two old hounds 



