THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



also revived to a certain degree, and that was as much as 

 could be expected ; for the heart of woman — 



' ... is like the youthful tree 

 The lightning strikes to earth ; 

 Once scathed, its bloom no more will be : 

 It knows no second birth.' 



The domestic news, and that of the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, had been conveyed to our hero by letters from the 

 various members of his family, during his sojourn in Oxford- 

 shire ; and his uncle had been visited by him for a few days, 

 during a temporary stop to hunting by frost. Mr. Egerton 

 had succeeded to the living of Amstead, it having been pre- 

 sented to him by Mr. Raby on the decease of Dr. Chapman ; 

 was married at the end of the twelvemonth to tlie second 

 Miss Chapman ; and, having the promise from Sir John 

 Inkleton of the living of Orton, on the decease of its then 

 incumbent, far advanced in years, this amiable man and sound 

 scholar had every prospect of happiness within the range of 

 his moderate desires. Neither were his expectations ill- 

 founded. He lived to see his family grow up and prosper ; 

 and it is scarcely necessary to add that he proved a treasure 

 to his parishioners ; for, independent of being an excellent 

 classical scholar, he possessed what, to be a good divine, every 

 man of that order ought to possess — namely, a tolerable fund 

 of every species of useful knowledge ; and being conversant 

 with many other branches of science besides the classics and 

 the doctrine of his own sacred calling, he became generally 

 conducive to the benefit of those whose souls were committed 

 to his care. 



248 



