128 Recollections of the Bustard on Salisbury Plain. 
joyfully seize the opportunity offered of printing the following extracts 
from letters by the Rev. W. Quekett, Rector of Warrington, in 
Lancashire, which were addressed, in the first: place, to Lord Lilford, 
and subsequently, with farther particulars, to my friend, Professor 
Newton, who kindly sent them for my perusal. To these gentlemen, 
as well as to the writer of the letters, I tender my thanks for the ready 
permission they have given me to print the extracts below, which 
I feel sure will be read with interest by Wiltshiremen. [Ep.] 
‘*T was born in the year 1802, and I believe I was about nine or ten years of 
age, when, during the Midsummer holidays, I went on a visit to my uncle, at 
Great Bedwyn, in Wiltshire; I went under the care of the guard of the North 
Devon coach to Salisbury, and a person who attended Salisbury market once a 
month called for me next day at the inn, to take me in his waggonette to Bed- 
wyn. Weleft about the middle of the day, and in a short time got on the Plain. 
We were a long time there, and (the weather being hot) the driver said his horses 
wanted some water, so he would drive down into a valley where there was a 
well, which the shepherds used for the sheep; and he directed me to take a 
walk to a particular spot pointed out in the distance, and to stay there until he 
came. I was glad to get out of the carriage, and amused myself by gathering 
some wild flowers. In wandering about I came to some rough sedgy ground, 
and had scarcely approached it, when 1 was dreadfully frightened by the rising 
of several large birds ; I counted (I think) seven, as they continued in sight for 
some time. As soon as the driver joined me, I told him the story, and he said 
they were certainly Bustards. The date of this occurrence must (J think) be 
June or July, 1812. I am quite certain it was in the summer of a year previous 
to 1815, because I was then spending the holidays at home when the news of 
the battle of Waterloo arrived, and it was previous to that year that I went 
into Wiltshire. It was also previous to 1814, because I was at home during the 
summer holidays of that year, when Richard Caines, a midshipman of the 
‘* Undaunted,” that conveyed Napoleon to Elba, came to us to spend some 
time during the holidays. I have ridden across the Plain several times since, 
on horseback, the first time in September, 1826, to visit my then Rector of a 
Somersetshire living, Dr. Rogers, of Rainscombe House, near Oare. I used to get 
on the Plain at Chitterne, and with a compass in my pocket, and a map in my 
hat, found my way pretty well, saye once when I was obliged, on account of the 
fog, to return to the high road. It was a long day’s ride, the starting point 
being some few miles beyond Wincanton, Somerset—W.Q.” 
There is such a hearty ring of good old-fashioned habits, in the 
independent mode of locomotion mentioned above, and such a re- 
freshing glimpse of the wildness and breadth of the uncultivated 
Plain sixty-five years ago, that I make no apology for adding the 
last extract from Mr. Quekett’s letter, though it does not bear on 
the interview with the Bustards. [Ep.] 
