steeple-hunting

This, then, I suppose, was steeple-hunting, properly so called -- all this too was for love, at all events, not for money.

Confessions of an Etonian I. E. M.

I have a great respect for bets, -- it is part of an Englishman's character to bet on what he thinks fit, and to prosecute his enquiries over hedge and ditch, as if he were steeple-hunting.

St. Ronan's Well Walter Scott 1801

Englishman’s character to bet on what he thinks fit, and to prosecute his enquiries over hedge and ditch, as if he were steeple-hunting.

Saint Ronan's Well 2008