The Rev. Henry Rokeby. 275 



endeavour of one whose parishioners honour him alike 

 for his admirable performance of either duty. 



Suffering no parochial call to remain unheeded, this 

 worthy chief of a country village is not blind to the fact 

 that there is a world outside the limits of his own 

 microcosm, wherein are to be found occupations and 

 amusements which serve to relieve the monotony of the 

 life of a rural rector. Born and bred in the creamy part 

 of the finest hunting-country in England ; nourished by 

 the breezes that have scudded over Loatland and Sunder- 

 land Woods, Langborough and Waterloo Gorse, it is 

 impossible that the subject of this memoir should not 

 have been affected by their influence. To breathe such 

 an atmosphere is to imbibe a love for the chase ; and the 

 squirearchical element in this case not having been lost 

 in the clerical one, Mr. Rokeby has failed to perceive 

 that when made subservient to duty, hunting is to be 

 elimiuated from the pleasures of parsonic life. Not 

 claiming to be an hereditary sportsman, Mr. Rokeby is not 

 indebted to any of his immediate predecessors for his love 

 of horse and hound. One of these a gallant Colonel, 

 the most popular but non-sport-loving of men, used to 

 consider it his duty when the hounds met at Arthingworth 

 to appear " outside a horse '^ to see the find. Being con- 

 gratulated by a friend on one of these rare occasions on 

 the hunter-like appearance of his steed, he remarked^ 

 ^^ Oh, yes, he's a good-looking beast enough, but he has 

 one fault about him that does not suit me at all." 

 " What may that be, if I may venture to inquire ? '^ 

 asked the admirer of the unconscious animal. '^ Why 

 he wants to jump, and I don't,'' was the honest and 

 amusing answer of the gallant officer of Fencibles. 



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