2q6 The PytcJiley Hunt, Past and Present, 



MR. DRURY WAKE. 



The eye scanDing the constituents of a Pytcliley field 

 at the time of which we have been speaking, might have 

 observed^ mounted on a small brown horse^ strong as a 

 lion and active as a cat, a gentleman, who, recognized at 

 that period by his college-intimates as " Whack '^ of 

 Christ Church, is now more generally known as Mr. 

 Drury Wake, of Pitsford House, near Northampton. 



The third son of Sir Charles Wake of Courteen Hall, 

 he was sent at the usual age to Rugby School, where, 

 under his uncle, Dr. Tait — afterwards Archbishop of 

 Canterbury — he in no way failed to make the most of 

 such pleasures as are to be met with in public-school life; 

 and suffered nothing in point of health by a too unre- 

 mitting attention to classical and mathematical studies. 

 Giving him credit for the possession of abilities, which 

 under the forcing influences of perseverance and hard 

 work might produce fruit of no ordinary character, 

 Oxford was called upon by his relatives to bring about 

 those results which Rugby had so signally failed in 

 effecting. It was hoped that in the bosom of Alma 

 Mater, and under the watchful eye of a college tutor, the 

 spirit of application and a thirst for the acquisition of 

 classical knowledge might take the place of an apparent 

 indifference to the teachings of the philosophers of old. 

 But parents are born to disappointment so surely as the 

 sparks fly upwards, and to the old Rugbyan the system 

 of '^ Figg-Tollitt " and Charles Symonds had more 

 attraction than the less voluntary instruction to be had 

 within the walls of a college. Under the new influences 

 the hereditary love of horse and hound seemed to 



