64 Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



fate had made him a novehst or play-writer. This wonderful 

 sense of the dramatic is conspicuous in his " Memories of 

 Famous Trials," in which he seizes the " thrill " of a story 

 as unerringly as a trained journalist, but quite instinctively. 

 For instance, he sets out to tell the once famous story 

 of the Wainwright murder. It is worth reading and is a fine 

 piece of sensational journalism. I cannot recollect ever before 

 having seen a man whose life is largely spent in field sports 

 possessing this acute dramatic sense in a similar degree. 



He was more often given a seat on the bench than not, as so 

 many of the Judges were his personal friends, including Wight- 

 man, who died on circuit at York in 1862, Grantham, Brampton, 

 and Day. I have often wondered if it would not be desirable 

 to discontinue this practice of allowing the curious to occupy 

 seats on the bench. I can understand a man interested in law 

 being occasionally allowed this privilege, but when women of 

 fashion and other sightseers are given seats there for the pleasure 

 of witnessing what must be intensely painful to those being 

 tried, I do not think it decorous, humane, or dignified. It is 

 inconceivable to me, too, how it can be any pleasure to watch 

 a fellow -creature in torture, either mental or physical. 



From his 'earliest childhood Burnaby showed his interest in 

 trials and criminals. When a small boy his father once asked 

 him what he would hke for a present, and the prompt reply was : 

 " The Newgate Calendar, please, father." 



Later in life, when staying in the Isle of Wight, after a public 

 dinner his old friend Lord Alverstone, at that time Sir Richard 

 Webster, Attorney -General and M.P. for the Island, said to 

 Mr. Burnaby, " You ought to have gone to the Bar." My 

 friend replied, " If I had. Sir Richard, you would only have 

 been Solicitor-General to-night." " Very likely," replied Sir 

 Richard. 



Parson Burnaby is a gifted man, and fond of sport in every 

 sense of the word. He has enjoyed his fair share of it, too, 

 having hunted with most of the English packs, those he has 

 hunted with most being the Oakley, Quorn, Cottesmore, Sir 

 Watkin Wynn's, Tedworth, Lord Portman's, Blackmore Vale, 

 South Dorset, New Forest (deer and fox), and the Devon and 

 Somerset stag-hounds. With this last pack he enjoyed much 

 sport, and always speaks with affection of the happy days 



