14 Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



instruction nor encouragement from his father or elder brother. 



George Hustler was the third son of Mr. Thomas Hustler, a 

 most eccentric old man living a secluded life at Acklam Hall, 

 where his son George was born on June 12th, 1827. At an 

 early age he was sent to a school at Southwell kept by a Mr. 

 Fletcher, a fashionable place where small boys were educated in 

 those days. Several north-countrv^ neighbours accompanied 

 him — Sir William Harcourt, Sir Matt. Wilson, Calverlys, 

 Gooch's, and others. Those were coaching days, and fine times 

 the boys seem to have had with pea -shooters, etc., en 

 route. 



Later he went to Harrow into the sixth form, and was, I 

 believe, the head of it. He had a great love for his old school. 

 From there he went to University College, Oxford, where he 

 took his degrees of B.A. and M.A., and where he was known as 

 the best man on a horse of that time. Needless to say, he 

 hunted regularly, but he worked as well as played, which is 

 more than a good many have done, if we may judge by their 

 own accounts. My friend used to laugh and say he thought his 

 singularly difficult handwriting had helped him immensely in 

 passing his examinations, as the tutors had neither the time nor 

 the patience to read his papers. That was his modest way of 

 explaining why he passed easily and well. It was an argument 

 that might cut both ways, it seemed to me. 



From Oxford he went to Durham Universit}^ where he was 

 ordained in 1849, and the same year married Louisa Hawley, 

 eldest daughter of Captain Hawley, King's Dragoon Guards, 

 who was present at the battle of Waterloo. 



It was a great disappointment to Mr. Hustler that he had no 

 son, as there were none in the family. He had only two daugh- 

 ters ; the elder married Richard Hill of Thornton Hall, York- 

 shire, and the younger married Colonel Bingham Wright, 

 Munster Fusiliers, at that time on the staff at Chatham. 



The first official appointment held by Mr. Hustler in the 

 Church was as curate-in-charge of Blanchland in July, 1849, 

 after which he went to Acaster near Selby in 1850, remaining 

 there until 1859, when he was given the living of Stillingfleet, 

 seven miles from York, from where he hunted with all the 

 neighbouring packs, more especially the York and Ainsty and 

 Bramham Moor. 



