56 Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



immediately jumped up, and shouted at the top of his voice, 

 " All change here for York ! " 



There are countless stories of the kindness of Parson Costo- 

 badie to his parishioners, to whom he used to trundle wheel- 

 barrow loads of coal, and was more than once seen hastening 

 to some sick person's house with his own dinner between tv,^o 

 plates, it having occurred to him that the particular dish might 

 prove tempting to some invalid. He never talked religion to 

 them out of church, unless they expressed a desire that he should 

 do so, as he believed that it was easier to get at people via their 

 *' Little Marys " than by tracts. During the last days of his 

 life, on hearing that hounds were passing through the village, 

 he asked to be lifted to the window to " have one last look at 

 the beauties." He died in 1887, aged eighty-three. Long life 

 is so often given to those sportsmen who live frugally and in 

 the open air. These hardy specimens of manhood have given 

 us many fine Empire-making sons. Most of the sons of the 

 sporting parsons that I have known have turned out well, 

 giving a good account of themselves, and been blessed with 

 fiine physique and health. His Reverence's elder brother, the 

 Reverend Henry Palisser de Costobadie, was three years his 

 senior, and the famous Bosworth gorse was situated in the six 

 hundred acres of glebe land attached to his living in Leicestershire. 

 Henry was admittedly one of the handsomest men of his day, and, 

 unlike his brother, sported a pink coat. His good looks and a 

 charming manner made him a great favourite with everyone. 

 He is said to be one of the last parsons to announce hunting 

 appointments from the pulpit, a custom that was continued up 

 to quite recent times at Porlock, in the Devon and Somerset 

 stag -hound country. There is also a legend about him always 

 having the church bells rung when hounds passed through the 

 village, but I will not vouch for this. He must have been quite 

 a bold thinker for those times, as he believed that divorce was a 

 good thing for couples who could not get on together. " If 

 parsons could untie as easily as they tie, instead of being engaged 

 one day a week we should be hard at it all seven," was one of 

 his frequently expressed convictions. 



If it came to hazarding an opinion as to the sporting parsons 

 who have held pride of place in their particular sports, I think 

 that I should say that Parson Jack Russell was the most famous 



