PETERBOROUGH AND THE FITZWILLIAM HUNT 5 



arable, a house, yard, and twenty-four acres of 

 wood. From the time of King John, the manors 

 of Pitchley and Gidding were held by Sergeanty 

 for the hunting of foxes and wild cats in all 

 forests in Northamptonshire, Rutland, Leicester- 

 shire, Oxfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Bucks. 

 But, in 1373, an enquiry had to be made, that, 

 in consequence of the tenants of the manor of 

 Pitchley and Gidding being ladies who did not hunt, 

 the whole, of Rockingham Forest was full of foxes." 

 Then my father, who resided in the Peterborough 

 diocese, for about forty years, goes on to say :— 



" In these days of clerical activity and super- 

 vision, when so much is — very properly — expected 

 of a clergyman — when he is periodically looked 

 up and examined by those who are set in authority 

 over him, as to his parochial work and duties, 

 with long strings of questions, to which he is ex- 

 pected to give definite answers, — when he has to 

 attend Episcopal and Archidiaconal Visitations and 

 Conferences, and Ruridecanal Meetings, Church 

 Congresses, Clergy Retreats, Diocesan Associations, 

 Mission Services, Boards of Education, and what 

 not, in addition to Schools, Clubs, Societies, In- 

 stitutes, Mothers' Meetings, and the like — in a 

 way that was utterly unknown to his bewigged 

 predecessors in the early part of the century — there 

 does not seem to be a fragment of time, or the 

 ghost of an opportunity for a town parson, and 

 very little leisure even for a country parson, to 

 devote himself to the pleasures of the Chase." 



It is a congratulation to all sportsmen who 

 cherish the best traditions of the Chase, that the 

 see of Peterborough to-day is presided over bj^ a 

 Bishop — the Right Reverend the Hon. Carr Glyn — 

 whose sympathies are with fox-hunting, and whose 



