156 sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



moved, and lay on him like a log. He did not know how long 

 they lay like this ; it began to snow and he became only semi- 

 conscious and it seemed as though eternity had begun, although 

 it was really only about twenty minutes before two returning 

 sportsmen found him. Luckily enough, one was a doctor. All 

 this time the horse was lying as though dead, and had to be 

 rolled out of the way before Mr. Honey could be moved. It was 

 found that his collar-bone and three ribs were broken, in addition 

 to internal injuries, and the doctor feared his spine was affected, 

 as he had lost the use of his legs. They carried him on a hurdle 

 to the bottom of the tor, where a cart took him to a local asylum, 

 which happened to be the nearest building. At the asylum 

 they wanted to cut off his hunting boots, but he feebly pro- 

 tested, so to humour him they pulled them off ; long afterwards 

 he was told they did not think at the time that he would ever 

 want any sort of boots again. He did not reach home for five 

 hours after the accident, and was in bed from March till June. 

 For a long time it did not seem that he would quite recover the 

 full use of his legs, but to-day he is as sound as ever. 



In the Stevenstone country he once turned up at a meet 

 wearing a most beautiful new top-hat which he justly believed 

 to be the object of general admiration. Soon after hounds had 

 found he jumped a fairly large boundary fence, over which the 

 landing was so soft that his horse sank in and pecked so badly 

 that he was thrown over its head and landed on his own, plunging 

 his hat into the spongy ground and remaining in that ostrich-like 

 attitude for some moments. When he extricated himself the 

 hat-brim encircled his brow and the crown remained stuck in 

 the ground as neatly as a new golf-hole ! The sad affair was 

 made the subject of a sketch by an artistically-minded friend. 



Mr. Honey must have inherited his resourcefulness from his 

 father, who was richly endowed with that quality, as is evident 

 from the following story. At his Bible-class one afternoon the 

 boys were reading the description of Jacob's ladder set up from 

 earth to heaven with the angels ascending and descending. 

 One boy suddenly asked the vicar why winged angels should 

 want a ladder ? This was a poser to which he could find no 

 immediate answer, but he rose to the occasion magnificently 

 by saying, " Now that is a very sensible question, very 

 sensible indeed, and I am sure there must be some of you who 



