Chapter XI 



The Rev. Pierce Armar Butler — Purbeck Pilgrim — His Ancestors — Worthy Sons 

 — Three Years as Army Chaplain — Good-bye to the Seventeenth Division — 

 — Feeling Miserable — A Coal-heaver's Farewell — A Popular Sermon — Some 

 Happy Days — "Not Taking Any" — A Sporting House-Master — An Un- 

 common Experience — A Triumphant Run — A Missing Spur — A Bobbery 

 Pack — Purbeck Pilgrim Jumped on — " Artexerxes " has Antipathies — A 

 Small Girl on a Clever Pony — A Holiday in Ireland — Great Preparations — A 

 Disappointment — Billy Butler no Relation — Rector of Frampton — A Friend 

 of George IV. — The King makes a Present — Mr. Butler makes a Mistake. 



PURBECK PILGRIM, who for years wrote the South 

 Dorset Hunting Reports for the Field, is at home in 

 East Stoke rectory, Dorset, where he is known as the 

 Rev. Pierce Armar Butler. He was born in 1863, and is son of 

 the big-game shooter and explorer, the Rev. Pierce Butler, a 

 notable pioneer in the Palestine Survey. 



Mr. Butler, who is a big, finely-made man and very genial, 

 is the great-grandson of the Earl of Carrick, and comes from a 

 family of sportsmen and soldiers whose names have shone in the 

 annals of our country. One of his ancestors was James Butler, 

 a Major in the Coldstream Guards who distinguished himself at 

 Silishia. Another, Henry Butler, was A.D.C. to the Duke of 

 Cambridge : both these Butlers were killed in the Crimea. 



History repeats itself, and alas ! two of Purbeck Pilgrim's 

 sons have given their lives in this war. One, Ralph, a promising 

 lad in the Navy, was pursued by fate, being torpedoed in the 

 Mediterranean while on the Dublin, after which he joined the 

 Hampshire and went down with Lord Kitchener and his Staff. 

 The other son, Armar, in the South Lancashire Regiment, served 

 two years at Salonica, where he was badly wounded. Later he 

 transferred to the Flying Corps, and died in action. Another 

 son, Rollo Pierce, drove a Red Cross Ambulance in Italy and 

 had a very rough time during the big retreat. Yet another 

 son, Hubert, in the Third Dorsets, was badly knocked about at 

 Arras and brought home nearly dead. 



The sporting father of those lads was himself invalided out 



