THE WILLEY EECTOR. 117 



to gainsay, that amusements calculated to strengthen 

 the frame and to improye the health, if fitting for 

 a gentleman, were not unfitting for a clergyman. 

 His presence, at any rate, was welcomed by neigh- 

 bouring squires in the field, as *' Hark in ! Hark 

 in ! Hark I Yoi oyer boys ! " sounded merrily on 

 the morning air ; and as he sat mounted on the 

 Squire's thorough-bred it would have been difficult 

 to have detected anything of the divine ; the 

 clerico-waistcoat and black single-breasted outer 

 garment having given place to more fitting garb. 

 Fond of field sports himself, he willingly associated 

 with his neighbours and joined in their pastimes 

 and amusements. A man who was a frequent 

 guest at the Hall, who received letters from the 

 Squire when in London, and who would take a 

 long pipe now and then between his lips, and 

 moisten his clay from a pewter tankard round a 

 clean-scoured table in a road-side inn, was naturally 

 of considerable importance in his own immediate 

 district. 



The Eector of TTilley had, we believe, been 

 brought up to the legal profession, he had also a 

 smattering knowledge of medicine, which enabled 

 him to render at times service to his parishioners, who 



