64 SPORTING PARSONS OF THE OLD SCHOOL: 



Nevertheless, as he was so well known in the hunting field 

 and on the turf before he exchanged the pigskin for the 

 pulpit, a brief reference to him can hardly fail to prove 

 interesting. 



The writer's first recollection of Mr. Foster was when 

 he was supposed to be learning farming of Mr. John 

 Richardson, of Gaulby, where he was a fellow pupil with 

 Mr. Faulkner, who subsequently purchased the Ashlands of 

 Mr. Arkwright ; also of Mr. Worrall, who now resides at 

 Wing. 



Mr. Foster soon became known to the Vicar of Norton, 

 between whom and the new comer there existed much in 

 common. They both claimed Cambridge as their Alma 

 Mater, and also St. John's as their College ; their acquaint- 

 ance rapidly ripened into friendship, and the Vicarage soon 

 became an open house to the stranger. Although there 

 was as great physical difference between them as between 

 David and Goliath, Mr. Foster being of medium height 

 and slight build, by whose side the Vicar appeared like a 

 giant, at Cambridge each in his day had, strange to say, 

 been awarded prizes for similar athletic feats ; but that 

 which, as may be anticipated, most conduced to their 

 present intimacy, was their mutual regard for the equine 

 species, more especially for the type known as the 

 thoroughbred. 



After a brief sojourn at Gaulby, Mr. Foster gave up 

 whatever ideas he had of farming and took a house with 

 some stabling attached, at Burton Overy, where he began 

 to indulge his inclination for racing in a modest manner. 

 He employed a good trainer, a Scotsman : but always rode 

 his own horses, hunting them also in the season. Mr. 

 Foster proved himself to be a remarkably shrewd young 

 man, a good judge of a horse, and expert jockey, for within 

 a year, with "Lady Adeliza " he won the big event at 

 Croxton Park, which many excellent sportsmen had 

 vainly endeavoured to capture for twenty or thirty years ! 

 Mr. Foster purchased " Lady Adeliza," at Tattersall's 



