194 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



after the latest hunting fashion-plate. They made two of a 

 kind, the farmer's son and the swell, in that they were both 

 equally anxious to display themselves. It was not difficult, 

 however, to see that the farmer's son was enjoying it all far 

 the better of the two. Then there was pointed out to me the 

 town magistrate, who was never known to want an excuse to 

 adjourn court when the Devon and Somerset staghounds were 

 hunting the Quantocks; and there was also a physician who 

 had driven to the meet, making a few hurried calls on the way. 

 At the meet he exchanged his carriage for a hunter and away 

 he rode, leaving his patients who did not happen to "live on the 

 way" to die, or get well as best they could without him, for as 

 the old song says, "he must go a-hunting to-day!" 



There was also the clergyman in his clerical dress, the 

 "sporting parson," as he is familiarly called — more by way of 

 compKment than otherwise. Few, I imagine, find more 

 pleasure in hunting than he; for next to the Master and the 

 huntsman, he is the most welcome member of the hunt. He 

 knows everyone and everyone knows him, and everyone loves 

 him, especially if (as is invariably the case) he is a "good sport," 

 rides well and rides straight. Even if you do not know him, 

 you must love him. The sight of him in his clerical suit, 

 seated on a well appointed hunter, makes you feel that he is 

 your fellow man, capable of enjoying what you enjoy, and of 

 being tempted as you are tempted; this draws you towards 

 Mm, for you feel that he is better fitted thereby to intercede 

 for your own shortcomings. It is a pleasure to see him riding 

 about among friends and neighbours, seated on his trusty 

 hunter, the present probably of Lord So-and-so, who admires 

 his style of riding to hounds, if he does not patronise his ser- 

 mons, and who for the same reason contributes liberally to the 

 church subscriptions. 



Long live the "sporting parson" to show us the way across 

 the fields when hounds run fastest, and across Jordan as well 



