CHAPTER II. 



It was in the year 1865 that George Carter having 

 retired from active life, and at the age of seventy-three 

 thinking perhaps the duties of huntsman to a four days' 

 a week pack rather greater than he could manage, said 

 good-bye to the kennels at Tedworth, and sought in the 

 quiet little village of Milton a home for his latter years. 

 There was a very comfortable house, quite sufficient for 

 his own wants and that of his family, with stabling, 

 sheds, yards, &c., adjoining, and about six acres of good 

 pasture land attached, which had a short time previously 

 been bought by a very well-known and respected char- 

 acter in the Tedworth Hunt, one Mr. Caleb Symonds, 

 who had for many years held the office of head game- 

 keeper, and afterwards park keeper, or verderer, as I 

 always chose to designate him, to the Marquis of Ailes- 

 bury, at Savernake Forest. The forest used, within 

 my recollection, to be hunted by the Craven, and I have 

 heard George Carter say that Mr. Smith had offered old 

 Lord Ailesbury, the father of the present and late 



