122 Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



The faithful old Devonshire farmer was not going to give 

 his vicar away, and replied. " Don't you believe a word on't. 

 I've heard strange things about your lordship, but don't believe 

 a word on't." 



This same Bishop appears at times to have been equal to 

 the occasion. Once a clergyman went to tackle him about 

 the hunting question and asked, " Is it true your lordship 

 objects to my hunting ? " 



" Not at all," said his lordship, " not at all ! Who could 

 have said such a tiling ? What I object to is your ever doing 

 anything else ! " 



One would require time to find a suitable smart reply to that. 

 It is so difficult to find piquant replies on the spur of the moment, 

 though during the night they race through one's brain. 



Mr. Froude hunted his pack of foxhounds for many years, 

 and the farmers around him approved and played into his hands. 



Sporting parsons, like old maids, are always having funny 

 stories told about them. I do not know why, but as there are 

 no old maids now and not many sporting parsons left, and what 

 there are do not care what is said about them but rather enjoy 

 the joke, I need not worry myself. 



The following parson story was told to me a short time ago 

 and struck me as amusing, but I fear it was the outcome of some 

 imaginative brain. 



A sporting parson who had arrived at the end of his ideas 

 for sermons asked a couple more of his fraternity, likewise 

 sporting, to come and help him. They promised to do so, one 

 to preach in the morning and one in the evening, but were rather 

 dismayed on hearing their host wished the subjects to be 

 connected in some way with the chase. The fox-hunting 

 parson, after racking his brain for some time, decided on his 

 text, " We heard of him at Ephrata and found him in the wood." 

 The poor harrier parson, who was to preach in the evening, 

 found it still more difficult to find a text he considered suitable, 

 but at last he decided, and when the time arrived to deliver his 

 eulogy this was what he had chosen, " Here is the heir (hare) ; 

 let us kill him." 



There is still another great " has been " in the Devonshire 

 sporting-parson group, like Jack Russell and Billy Butler, 

 household words. I have often heard it said, " Parson Michell 



