52 sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



Wyld, who was a very powerful man, and the two were regarded 

 by their friends as being rather useful boxers. On one occasion 

 the two held a street in a Town and Gown row with great success 

 against a crowd. After this, Mr. Wyld became known as the 

 " Thrashing Machine," and someone put a notice up on his 

 door, " To Let— A Thrashing Machine " ! 



It was to be expected that Mr. Costobadie's love of horses 

 would draw him to Newmarket Heath pretty frequently, and 

 he was a famiUar figure there all the time he was at Cam- 

 bridge ; of course, in those days undergraduates were allowed 

 to keep their own horses if they felt so inclined. 



Parson Costobadie held the living at Hallerton from 1838 

 to 1843, and it was while he was there that he set up the remark- 

 able record, that has since become something of a classic, which 

 consisted of riding forty miles, taking four services, jumping 

 four gates to save the trouble of opening them, shooting a couple 

 of wild duck, and arriving home with them hanging to his 

 saddle after dark. 



In 1850 he was offered, and accepted, the British chaplaincy 

 at Coblentz, which he held for six years, during which time he 

 experienced a great deal of kindness and hospitality at the hands 

 of Prince William of Prussia, who afterwards became King of 

 Prussia, and Emperor William I. of Germany. His Consort, 

 Augusta, nee the Princess of Saxe-Weinmr, was also very kind, 

 being strongly pro -British. Things British were very popular 

 with all classes of the country. The Princess went out of her 

 way to show her interest in the British colony, and was a regular 

 attendant at the chapel, where she expressed the wish that it 

 should be made to look " as much like an English church as 

 possible." She also presented the chaplain with a handsome pair 

 of silver candlesticks for the altar. 



It is hard to realise that all this was happening within a life's 

 span of to-day ; but so it was, and it shows how public senti- 

 ment will veer under the gentle suasion of its press and political 

 leaders — a trait not peculiar to Germany by any means. His- 

 tory does not give a very edifying picture of life in the numerous 

 small German courts of the period, but the court of Saxe- 

 Weimar seems to have been the exception to the rule, for Mr. 

 Costobadie brought away very happy memories of its simple 

 refinement and its cultured life. He also brought back to 



