150 Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



As a parson Mr. Honey found it impossible to make time for 

 both hunting and shooting, so gave up the latter entirely, whicli 

 he did not mind much, as he was not a good shot ; indeed, he 

 calls himself a " rotten shot," but it would be more accurate to 

 say he was a very uncertain one. Sometimes he did fairly well, 

 but on a bad day — he was very bad. One of these bad days 

 happened to fall on the same date as a shooting-party at which 

 he was one of the guns. By three o'clock, having fired many 

 salvoes but failed to bag a single bird, the other guns became 

 quite fascinated with watching him. At last one of the guns, 

 who was wearing a brown bowler, offered in the kindest manner 

 to throw his hat into the air if it would give Mr. Honey any 

 pleasure to shoot at it. The hat was duly thrown and Mr. 

 Honey blew it to pieces — ^the first hit of the day ! 



Although he had no time for shooting in the winter, he has 

 done a lot of show-jumping in the summer. Being very fond of 

 training horses, he not only managed to win a good many cups 

 but often sold a horse at a good price after showing it. 



He once beat " Blink Bonny " (of the 1907 Olympia show) at 

 an agricultural show near Plymouth while riding his bay horse 

 " Silver Tail," which was a clever jumper as a rule, but had the 

 disconcerting trick of taking every sort of show jump at full 

 gallop. It was the only way he would jump, and sometimes 

 led to making a mess of things, especially at the in-and-out 

 hurdles. He occasionally managed to clear in-and-outs with one 

 flying leap ! The day he beat " Blink Bonny " he was in one of his 

 good moods, but when he was not, he was of little use in the ring. 



The best hunter Mr. Honey ever had was a chestnut gelding 

 of just under sixteen hands. Bought as a four-year-old, it won 

 several prizes in the hunter classes at shows. At its first show 

 it took second prize in a very big class, and a dealer at once 

 offered £120 for the horse, but Mr. Honey refused the offer and 

 rode the chestnut for the next eight seasons, doing a regular two 

 days a week and only getting two falls during the whole time. 

 In the end Mr. Honey sold it to carry the huntsman of Mr. 

 Scott Brown's hounds, and it came to an untimely end two years 

 later. It broke away from a groom who was leading it at exer- 

 cise and ran wild up the road until it collided with a dog-cart, . 

 the shaft of which pierced its side so deeply that it fell dead. 



In 1913 Mr. Honey won the Stevcnstone point-to-point with 



