who can talk only of his briefs, is very bad; but the hunting man
who can talk only of his runs, is, I think, worse even than the
unadulterated tallow-chandler, or the barrister unmixed. Let me
pause for a moment here to beg young sportsmen not to fall into
this terrible mistake. Such bores in the field are, alas, too
common; but the hunting parson never sins after that fashion.
Though a keen sportsman, he is something else besides a
sportsman, and for that reason, if for no other, is always a
welcome addition to the crowd.

But still I must confess at the end of this paper, as I hinted
also at the beginning of it, that the hunting parson seems to
have made a mistake. He is kicking against the pricks, and
running counter to that section of the world which should be his
section. He is making himself to stink in the nostrils of his
bishop, and is becoming a stumbling-block, and a rock of offence
to his brethren. It is bootless for him to argue, as I have here
argued, that his amusement is in itself innocent, and that some
open-air recreation is necessary to him. Grant him that the
bishops and old ladies are wrong and that he is right in
principle, and still he will not be justified. Whatever may be
our walk in life, no man can walk well who does not walk with the
esteem of his fellows. Now those little walks by the covert
sides, those pleasant little walks of which I am writing, are
not, unfortunately, held to be estimable, or good for themselves,
by English clergymen in general.