96 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



five brace of foxes which used his own earths ; and that he trimmed 

 at his own expense no less tlian ten miles of rides through his own 

 coverts. From others I learnt that he had almost the greatest 

 extent of highly-dressed pleasure groimds of any man in the county, 

 and that on hunting days the gates are all thrown open, and he is 

 one of the first to gallop over them when the chase leads that way. 

 A sportsman might almost be pardoned for exclaiming "what 

 reward shall be given unto thee ! " 



A great portion of English clergymen are sportsmen, but in 

 Devonshire they may be almost said to abound ; and it is well for 

 them that they have so many opportunities of entering into sports 

 of the field, as from the miserable state of the roads they would 

 otherwise derive but little pleasure or benefit from horse exercise.''' 

 Add to this, as the poet says, — 



" To spring a covey, or uneartli a fox. 

 In reverend sportsmen is right orthodox." 



The Eev. Dr. Troyte, of Huntsham near Tiverton, keeps a pack 

 of fox-hounds, as his brother and father have done before him for 

 the last fifty years. His health being but indifferent, the fixtures 

 were chiefly regulated by it, and the establishment was not a large 

 one, so that, being pressed for time, I did not make any effort to 

 see it. 



My visit to Devonshire unfortunately happening at the time w^hen 

 we were visited with what almost appeared to threaten a second 

 deluge — added to the sickness of almost all my friend's horses and 

 my own — I was unable to see half the lions. There was one pack 

 of fox-hounds which I wished particularly to see, and it was my 

 intention to have done so ; and those were the hounds of the Hon. 

 Newton Fellowes, whose house was not more than twenty miles 

 distant from where I was staying. Though slightly known to Mr. 

 Fellowes, by meeting him occasionally by the covert's side, a very 



* In my travels through life, I have heard some sneers against " hunting- 

 parsons ; " but my idea is this : — A hunting parson makes friends : a shooting 

 parson makes enemies. A clerical friend of mine being disappointed at the death 

 of a relation, said he should give up hunting and sell his horses. " Do no such 

 thing," said a certain noble relation, very high in the sporting world ; " stick 

 to the brush, and it will get you a living." And so it did. 



