130 The Pytchley Hunt^ Past and Present, [chap. iv. 



Mastership — eacli ending in the death of a temporary 

 member of the Hunt. A singular coincidence attending 

 these melancholy occurrences, was that in either case 

 the same fence, and a post and rail under Winwick 

 Warren, brought about the fatal result. The first of 

 the two victims to timber was a Mr. Sawbridge, an 

 elderly gentleman hunting from the '^ Coacli and 

 Horses" at Brixworth. On a frosty morning, the 

 meet being Chilcoats (a name unknown to the modern 

 Pytchley Hunt), Mr. Sawbridge^s horse slipped in the 

 act of jumping a post and rail, and fell heavily upon 

 his rider. Scarcely alive, the unfortunate gentleman 

 was carried to Mr. LovelFs house at the Warren, 

 where, without a hope of recovery, he lingered for 

 some hours. Though a stranger, with the kindness 

 so characteristic of himself, Mr. Payne remained at 

 the bedside of the sufferer till all was over. Years 

 after the sad occurrence, in reply to a question on 

 the point, he said, ^^ I asked the poor fellow if he 

 would like to see a clergyman, and to my great sur- 

 prise he replied, ''' No, thank you, there's no necessity, 

 as I was at church last Sunday ! '' 



The child who told the school-inspector that Adam 

 and Eve were turned out of Paradise because they had 

 displeased their parents and friends (!) showed little less 

 ignorance than did this septuagenarian sportsman of the 

 Christian scheme. That children, however, do not enjoy 

 a monopoly of lack of accuracy in Scripture-teachings is 

 clear from a ^letter of Canon Wilberforce, who writing 

 from Ryde to a friend, says : — '^ A lady here — a mother 

 of seven children, and a member of my Bible-instruction 

 class — told me the other day that '^ Jonah was thrown 



