146 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



by the late Lord George Bentinck. " What profession Is 

 this gentleman of 1 " said his Lordship, as they entered his 

 drawing-room. " A parson," replied the squire, and point- 

 ing to the pictures of eminent sportsmen which adorned 

 the walls, added, " Don't you see the portraits of his 

 favourite bishops ? " Dr. Coplestone, bishop of LlandafF, 

 had loved fox-hunting in his youth, and always looked on 

 these " clerical eiTors" with some indulgence. When he was 

 provost of Oriel, a needy curate, wishing to ingratiate him- 

 self with the Oxford dignitary, pointed out to him, as they 

 sauntered together down High Street, a worthy parson of 

 Jesus College, who was riding leisurely along on his way to 

 meet the hounds, and remarked, with a shrug of religious 

 horror, " Sic itur ad astra ! " " It is not the white 

 breeches," replied the provost, with great discernment and 

 liberality, " that the Church need be afraid of, but your 

 long-coated, black-gaitered gentlemen." * 



Doubtless Mr. Smith had great advantages in the pos- 

 session of vast physical strength, extraordinary nerve, and 

 of a constitution that never bent under fatigue. These 

 are important adjuncts to success in the hunting field, but 

 they are not the ruling elements, and Mr. Smith shared 

 them with many other men. Cassius complained with 

 envy, that the weakly temperament of Caesar overcame the 

 world. The secret of Mr. Smith's great success lay in his 

 unbounded ardour for his favourite pursuit, and the unre- 

 mitting energy he brought to bear upon it. 



The prevailing symptom of our age is a lack of abid- 



* Apropos of fox-hunting divines, we may here mention a misad- 

 venture which once befell a heavy parson during a very severe run on 

 Salisbury Plain. His hoise had come down across some cart-ruts, in a 

 manner which Dick Burton would describe as a huster. His reverence 

 was much shaken, and did not come to himself for a few seconds ; 

 ■when he did, he seated himself upon the greensward, and mildly 

 observed : "I wish those confounded Romans had pecked in the ruts 

 before they left this part of the country ! " 



