a clergyman's pet stag picks out the heretics

Two anecdotes among many colorful ones of a Cornish clergyman named Robert  Stephen Hawker, better known as the Vicar of Morwenstow.

One innocent guest was regaled . . . with the story of a preceding visitor who for his unlucky garb had been pinned to the earth by the Vicar's pet stag Robin. "This Evangelical," said Hawker, "had a tail-coat; he was dressed like an undertaker, sir. Once upon a time there was one like him travelling in Egypt, with a similar coat and a tall hat; and the Arabs pursued him, calling him the 'father of saucepans, with a slit-tail.'" The guest to whom the story was told wore a like garment, and found the situation somewhat embarrassing.

The tame stag, with its proper hatred of Evangelicals, was not the only odd pet that made favour in the Vicar's eyes. At one time he was attended everywhere by an intelligent black pig, and it is as like as not we shall meet him in his glebe surrounded by a dog and nine or ten cats. Both dog and cats are so indulged that they accompany him to church and circle about him while he performs the divine office.

 -- Paul Elmer More, "Shelburne Essays 4th series." The Vicar of Morwenstow, p. 13. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1911.  Doesn't this gentleman sound fascinating?  There's a fair amount about him on the web, including a whole website all about him.