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SPORT AND CHURCH ARRANGEMENTS 9
the woods. Nothing else explains the weird hostility we
felt to the timid rabbits, hares, and the lovely cockpheasants.
If boys' nature is to be refined and uplifted,
this instinct is to be guided, not crushed ; and this can
easily be done by substituting interest in animals for
hostility towards them. The kodak soon takes the place
of the gun, and should be used from ten years old onwards.
When it is a case of destruction of vermin, rats, etc., by
order of the community, the instinct may be cautiously
gratified, but the child must know why.
During the Easter holidays, before cricket began and
after shooting stopped, wE! used to gather at the Hall door
and listen for the distant hum of the threshing machine,
and tramped, armed with good ashen sticks, over hedge and
ditch, until the elusive joy was fairly located. Towards
evening what a burly-burly of service to a neighbour I
some thirty or forty rats deftly foredone by a blow on
the spine or chawed up by the fox-terrier, Vic-a remarkable
animal, who on one occasion gobbled up thirteen
mice apparently without a chew at the moment or a qualm
afterwards (the same dog once rceeived a bullet from .a
pef4·rifle, through her person, just under the back-bone,
and after one admonitory yelp went on as if nothing
whatever had happened). But it must be admitted, the
civilizing influence of the love of animals was imperfectly
carried through, and issued in little more than a certain
self-interested regard for the terrier, the pony, and that
unpleasing beast the ferret •
.At home, the Chureh arrangements in 1860 were considerably
in advance of those prevailing elsewhere in
country districts. It is not generally known how recently
some of the most primitive and grotesque absurdities
disappeared. A great friend of mine and an admirable
schoolmaster, E. W. Howson, came across a young clerical
member of that profession who eked out a lean income
by doing odd jobs in the holidays for parsons who needed
help. His itinerary was in the south of England and
some of his experiences were well-nigh incredible. Once,