164 HUNTING IN THE MIDLANDS 



better than in a hunting field. Nor in the modern 

 hunting field is there anything which either ladies 

 or clergymen need fear to face. The strong words 

 and the strange oaths, the rough language — in fine, 

 what has been called " the roaring lion element," 

 these are accessories of the chase which have long 

 since become things of the past. And the consum- 

 mation is a natural consequence of the catholicity 

 which hunting has acquired. There are no abuses 

 like class abuses. Once admit the free lisjht of 

 publicity, and they vanish. 



There are hunting farmers and huntiog parsons, 

 clergymen who make the chase the business of their 

 lives, and those who get a day with the hounds as an 

 agreeable relief to their professional toils. There is 

 not much to be said in favour of the former order, 

 which has, by the way,nearly become extinct. It sur- 

 vives in Wales and in North Devon yet, and curious 

 are the authentic stories which might be narrated 

 about these enthusiastic heroes of top-boots and spur. 

 There is a little village in North Devon where, till 

 within a very few years, the meet of the stag- 

 hounds used to be given out from the reading desk 

 every Sunday after the first lesson. Years ago, 

 when one who is now a veteran amongst the fox- 

 hunting clerics of that neighbourhood first entered 

 upon his new duties, he was seized with a desire to 



