English fellow in dark fur, worthy of respect (9)
I believe the answer is:
estimable
'worthy of respect' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'english fellow in dark fur' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'fellow' becomes 'tim' (I have seen 'Little fellow' mean 'tim' so perhaps 'fellow' could also mean 'tim').
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'dark fur' becomes 'sable' (I've seen this in another clue).
'tim' put inside 'sable' is 'stimable'.
'e'+'stimable'='ESTIMABLE'
(Other definitions for estimable that I've seen before include "highly regarded" , "Deserving respect" , "Highly valued" , "worthy of deep respect" , "Worthy of great respect" .)