EECOLLECTIONS OF GEORGE CAETER. 63. 



this Thursday morning I was bobbing along quietly 

 across the down, towards the place where I hoped to 

 enjoy a- day's sport, the old man never going so far 

 from home, and trusting to my giving him a full 

 account on my return. We had a long and not very 

 busy morning, and later in the day we got away into 

 Doles Wood and Pill Heath, a long way behind our 

 fox and not much prospect of catching him, when, to 

 add to our other misfortunes, it came on thick and 

 ended in a regular fog. 'Twas four o'clock, getting 

 nearly dark, when Mr. Raikes, better known as 

 "Uncle Fred," and as good a sportsman as ever sat 

 in a saddle, as he was acting as "master" for the 

 day, thought it best to get the hounds together and 

 go home. 



Now Pill Heath and Doles Wood are almost un- 

 known lands to our side of the Tedworth country ; 

 as they are the very extremity of a kind of uninhabited 

 district, and very wide of Pewsey Vale, the first 

 thing to be done was to find out who was likely to be 

 going my way, and act as pilot till I got somewhere 

 nearer home. As good luck would have it, there were 

 two representatives of Pewsey Yale left, as well as 

 myself — for about Christmas time nobody asks whether 

 meets are wide or not, so that we can get to hounds at 

 all. Then there were the two Captain Wellesleys (ag 



