The Recreations of A Country Parson

The Recreations of A Country
Parson

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Title: The Recreations of A Country Parson
Author: A. K. H. Boyd
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RECREATIONS OF A COUNTRY PARSON ***

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THE RECREATIONS OF A COUNTRY PARSON.
SECOND SERIES.
A. K. H. BOYD.
BOSTON:
1862.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
CONCERNING THE PARSON'S CHOICE

CHAPTER II.
CONCERNING DISAPPOINTMENT AND SUCCESS

CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS

CHAPTER IV.
CONCERNING CHURCHYARDS

CHAPTER V.

CONCERNING SUMMER DAYS

CHAPTER VI.
CONCERNING SCREWS

CHAPTER VII.
CONCERNING SOLITARY DAYS

CHAPTER VIII.
CONCERNING GLASGOW DOWN THE WATER

CHAPTER IX.
CONCERNING MAN AND HIS DWELLING-PLACE

CHAPTER X.
LIFE AT THE WATER-CURE

CHAPTER XI.
CONCERNING FRIENDS IN COUNCIL

CHAPTER XII.
CONCERNING THE PULPIT IN SCOTLAND

CHAPTER XIII.
CONCERNING FUTURE TEARS

CHAPTER XIV.

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER I.
CONCERNING THE PARSON'S CHOICE BETWEEN TOWN AND
COUNTRY.

One very happy circumstance in a clergyman's lot, is that he is saved
from painful perplexity as regards his choice of the scene in which he is
to spend his days and years. I am sorry for the man who returns from
Australia with a large fortune; and with no further end in life than to
settle down somewhere and enjoy it. For in most cases he has no
special tie to any particular place; and he must feel very much
perplexed where to go. Should any person who may read this page
cherish the purpose of leaving me a hundred thousand pounds to invest
in a pretty little estate, I beg that he will at once abandon such a design.
He would be doing me no kindness. I should be entirely bewildered in
trying to make up my mind where I should purchase the property. I
should be rent asunder by conflicting visions of rich English landscape,
and heathery Scottish hills: of seaside breezes, and inland meadows: of
horse-chestnut avenues, and dark stern pine-woods. And after the estate
had been bought, I should always be looking back and thinking I might
have done better. So, on the whole, I would prefer that my reader
should himself buy the estate, and bequeath it to me: and then I could
soon persuade myself that it was the prettiest estate and the pleasantest
neighbourhood in Britain.
Now, as a general rule, the Great Disposer says to the parson, Here is
your home, here lies your work through life: go and reconcile your
mind to it, and do your best in it. No doubt there are men in the Church
whose genius, popularity, influence, or luck is such, that they have a
bewildering variety of livings pressed upon them: but it is not so with
ordinary folk; and certainly it was not so with me. I went where
Providence bade me go, which was not where I had wished to go, and
not where I had thought to go. Many who know me through the pages
which make this and a preceding volume, have said, written, and
printed, that I was specially cut out for a country parson, and specially

adapted to relish a quiet country life. Not more, believe me, reader,
than yourself. It is in every man who sets himself to it to attain the
self-same characteristics. It is quite true I have these now: but, a few
years since, never was mortal less like them. No cockney set down near
Sydney Smith at Foston-le-Clay: no fish, suddenly withdrawn from its
native stream: could feel more strange and cheerless than did I when I
went to my beautiful country parish, where