68 SPORTING PARSONS OF THE OLD SCHOOL : 



'Tell you what Jack, Timber's liquor has got hold of me.' I 

 replied — 'has it, by George,' upon which the governor said, 

 'Well, never mind, its one o'clock in the morning, no one will 

 see us ' — to which I made no reply, but thought it a bit rough 

 that my father should speak in the plural number ! 



Rev. J. HousoN, Rector of Brant Broughton in the 

 Sixties, was a typical Sporting Parson, of whom Mrs. Leslie, 

 of Alton, Hants, (sister of Mr. Davenport) writes: — 



He had four daughters : the eldest, Anna, married Dick Sutton ; 

 the second became Mrs. Burnside, of Benham, -where I stayed 

 ■with them occasionally ; the third, Isabella, married Colonel 

 Warrand, and Lucy, the youngest, who was a great pet of her 

 father's. She was petite, and he was proud of her riding, and 

 used to call her " Jockey." On one occasion he made her read 

 the lessons for him in Broughton Church. 



Of the Rev. Banks Wright I have much clearer recollec- 

 tions. He, too, was a hunting parson, and there is an excellent 

 likeness of him in Sir Francis Grant's picture of the Quom 

 Meet at Gartree Hill in 1858 — on the left of the four Sutton 

 brothers. He was a queer-looking man I used to think, and 

 certainly queer-tempered ; he had a very nice wife, commonly 

 called " Aunt Sophy " ; she was a Heathcote (Lord Aveland's 

 family). He was always grumbling and pleading poverty, but 

 had, I believe, an allowance from the Sutton Estate. They 

 lived at Shelton Hall, near Newark, and there I once stayed 

 w^ith them somewhere about 1864-65. They had two sons: 

 Vere, who fought under Garibaldi ; and Henry, who was in the 

 15th Hussars. There was a fine view of Belvoir from the 

 windows of Shelton Hall. 



Mr. Banks Wright was a god-son of Sir Joseph Banks, the 

 Naturalist, whose portrait was in the morning-room at Skef- 

 fington, after whom he was Christian-named, and afterwards 

 turned it into a double name. 



The Rev. Arthur Sutton is now Rector of Brant Broughton. 



