262 SPORTING STORIES 



cloth. He was fond of telling stories of his defiance of 

 conventional rules. One of these was to the effect that he 

 had been out cub-hunting one Sunday morning, and was 

 only able, by dint of hard riding, to reach the church just 

 as the bell had stopped ringing for service. He made no 

 secret, either, of the fact that Sunday cocking parties were 

 in vogue at Frampton. A few choice spirits would meet 

 at the rectory after service, and enjoy a quiet main without 

 fear of interruption. With equal zest, too, did Parson 

 Billy tell yarns of his poaching experiences. For instance, 

 one afternoon, as he was returning from hunting, he spied 

 a lot of pheasants which had strayed outside their owner's 

 woods and were feeding in front of a long hedgerow on a 

 property which was not preserved. Butler here saw too good 

 a chance to be missed. He woke up his nag with the spur, 

 and on reaching home ran into the house, got his gun and 

 a steady-going old retriever, and rode back as fast as his 

 hunter would carry him. Getting between the pheasants 

 and their coverts, he drove them into the hedgerow and 

 killed some five or six brace, which he hung on each side 

 of his horse, and rode coolly home again. 



Re accidents in the shooting-field, the father of the late 

 Marquis of Oueensberry was said to have accidentally 

 shot himself when out rabbit shooting in 1858 ; and Captain 

 Speke, the African explorer, was the victim of a gun 

 accident the day before he was to have confronted Captain 

 Richard Burton in public to explain his conduct in appro- 

 priating to himself the credit which Burton alleged to be 

 due to him. Frederic Gye, the well-known manager of the 

 Italian Opera at Covent Garden, was shot dead by accident 

 whilst pheasant shooting with Lord Dillon at Dytchley on 

 the same day on which Major Whyte-Melville was killed 

 out hunting. The late Professor Fawcett was shot by his 

 father when partridge shooting. Only two pellets struck 

 him, but they penetrated both eyeballs, and left him stone- 

 blind for life. Mr F. P. Delm^ Radcliffe was also shot. 

 When out with a shooting party on his own estate he got 

 somewhat out of the line, and received the contents of 

 one of his guest's guns in the face. He fell senseless, but 

 in a few minutes recovered consciousness and exclaimed 



