128 THE REV. ANDREW MATTHEWS. 



Gumley. He was a mighty collector of moths ; he so 

 bedaubed with treacle the trees in the wood that the foxes 

 would not lay in it." Now the Rectory adjoined Gumley 

 Hall, and the incumbent, from 1854 to his death in 1897, 

 was the well-known entomologist, the Rev. Andrew 

 Matthews. He was born on the day of the battle of 

 Waterloo, and first initiated me into the Latin tongue. He 

 had a gardener named West ; one day in May i860, I saw 

 this man with his back towards me potting plants in the 

 parson's grounds. The temptation was too great to resist, 

 so picking up a stone I took a shot at him, and hit him 

 plump where the body first meets the chair ; then realising 

 the danger of the situation for the first time I fled 

 precipitately, and took refuge behind a tombstone in the 

 churchyard. But the exasperated gardener was after me 

 like a shot, banged me about the head rather unmercifully, 

 so much so that it ached for a week afterwards. An old 

 medical attendant had always pronounced my head to be 

 my weak spot, and needing great care. My father was 

 furious, and promptly took out a summons for assault 

 against West. Mr. Fisher, solicitor, of Market Harborough, 

 was retained for the prosecution, and Mr. James Douglass 

 for the defence. I tell this anecdote because it was the 

 first occasion of my meeting with Mr. Douglass, one of the 

 hardest riders with Mr. Tailby, and for many years after- 

 wards Secretary to the Billesdon Hunt. He terrified me in 

 his cross examination, and in the end the Harborough 

 bench bound the defendant over to keep the peace. I had 

 some correspondence with Mr. Douglass in 1908, a few 

 months before his lamented death, in the course of which I 

 reminded him of our first meeting. In his reply, dated 

 27th October, 1908, he wrote: "Your enquiry takes me 

 back a good many years, and of course I well recollect your 

 appearance at the court house, though I don't think you 

 were much afraid. What a naughty boy you were then ! " 

 I well remember seeing his memorable match with old 

 * Matt ' Oldacre, both riding over seventeen stone, be it 

 remembered. I penned the following obituary notice of Mr. 



