go Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



gone on, not knowing anything had happened ; however, a few 

 friends were near : one galloped off for a doctor and fortunately 

 met one on his rounds in a car about two miles away. He 

 instantly jumped up behind the messenger, and together they 

 galloped back across country to where that pathetic figure 

 was lying so still. 



Alas ! there was nothing to be done, the doctor pronounced 

 life extinct ; the only comfort he could offer to those anxiously 

 awaiting his verdict was that he could have suffered no pain. 



Then followed one of the most impressive scenes ever 

 witnessed in the hunting-field. 



There had been no doctor out with the hounds that day, 

 but there had been another hunting parson, the Rev. A. S. 

 Crawley, rector of Bishopthorpe, one of the Archbishop's 

 chaplains. The moment the doctor pronounced life extinct he 

 held a service over his comrade as he lay in the field just where 

 he had fallen. There came a " hush " while all the members 

 and followers of the hunt gathered close around as if to keep him 

 still with them, while in a voice shaken with emotion the rector 

 from Bishopthorpe commended the soul of the " faithful " to 

 the care of the Great Unknown. 



All lingered for a few moments in silent prayer, making a 

 beautiful and striking picture, bent bare heads, scarlet coats 

 and grief-stricken faces, some of the field having been sobered 

 into realising for the first time that " in the midst of life we are 

 in death." And what of the other silent witnesses, the birds 

 and the beasts ? I wonder if any of my readers have ever 

 noticed the restlessness of our faithful companions when in the 

 presence of that great mystery which, for want of a better name, 

 we call death ; the look that comes into their eyes betraying 

 the understanding of a something of which they cannot speak, 

 the look of something troubling them. 



I have seen it both in horses and dogs, and though I fear I 

 am straying away from my subject, I must give one instance of 

 this instinct, understanding, or whatever it may be in animals. 



A devoted little fox-terrier once quite broke me down when 

 I was most needing my self-control. 



I was helping a dear friend to nurse her husband in India ; 

 he was dying from dysentery and fever. The end was very 

 near. His little fox-terrier that always slept on the end of his 



