THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 21 



Egerton entered fully into the pleasures and amusements 

 of Amstead Abbey, to the society of which, by his many 

 agreeable accomplishments, he was no small acquisition. 

 There was, however, one species of amusement in which 

 he did not often participate ; he rarely hunted, not that 

 he thought it unbecoming his clerical situation, but be- 

 cause he was so bad a horseman that he feared he might 

 break his neck. Neither was he ever seen with a gun in 

 his hand, the reason for which was a ludicrous one. On 

 being asked by a visitor to Mr. Raby, why he did not 

 join the shooting party of that morning, he accounted 

 for it in the following words : " I was once," said he, 

 " inclined to the sport of the gun, but a circumstance 

 that had nearly been attended with consequences which 

 would have rendered me miserable for life, determined 

 me to abandon it. My sight is imperfect ; that is to say, 

 I am, what is called, near-sighted ; and being once in a 

 wood with my gun, I espied what I took to be a fine full- 

 grown black rabbit, under a furze-bush. I fired at, and, 

 thank God, missed it, for it proved to be the head of the 

 most intimate friend of my youth, who had laid himself 

 at full length on the ground, to enable him to get a shot 

 at a hare. The shock to my nerves was so great, that, to 

 this day, the report of a gun brings instantly to my mind 

 the head of my friend under the furze-bush." 



Although no sportsman, as far as horses and guns were 

 concerned, Mr. Egerton had other ways of amusing him- 

 self abroad. He was an excellent fisherman, considering 

 the disciple of the angle, probably, as pursuing an aposto- 

 lical recreation, which, I believe, Izaak Walton did before 

 him. He was, also, a musician, playing beautifully on 

 the violoncello and the flute. But his summiim bonum, 

 in the way of indoor amusement, was a rubber at whist, 

 at which he was truly a trump. In fact, whoever got the 

 parson for a partner, considered him worth one point in 

 the game, and half a crown would now and then be ven- 

 tured on the rubber, on the strength of his fine play. But, 

 notwithstanding these recreations, in which Mr. Egerton 

 freely indulged himself, at proper times and seasons, no man 

 could have performed his twofold duties more sedulously 

 than he discharged his. In the preparation of his two 

 pupils for Eton, he succeeded eminently, and in his 

 calling, as curate of the parish, he gave universal satis- 

 faction both in and out of church. 



