128 sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



of the army after three and a half years' work as chaplain. 

 Soon after war broke out he was attached to the Seventeenth 

 Division, but was left in England when they went abroad, being 

 medically unfit. The latter part of the three years was spent 

 with the Dorsets at Weymouth, where he was known as " the 

 Chaplain on the grey horse." 



When the division was leaving England he rode with the 

 men for a long way on their march to Winchester. At last the 

 moment came when he must leave them and turn back, 

 though he felt the parting horribly. Bracing himself up, he 

 said good-bye to General Pilcher and his great friend Brigadier- 

 General Surtees ; then he stood beside the road watching the 

 division pass and feeling, to use his own expression, as if he 

 " must break down and howl." His favourite battalions rolled 

 past with their lads from Northumberland, Lancashire, and 

 Yorkshire shouting, " Good-bye, Passon," and " Best of luck. 

 Padre." Just as he felt he could not stand it any longer, his' 

 old soldier-servant — a Lancashire coal-heaver — came past, and 

 looking up most woefully said, " Good-bye, Chaplain, it's 



b y hard luck you can't come," and a yell of laughter that 



went up saved the situation. 



" I could never call a man over the coals for swearing like 

 that, for it was just the most sincere affection in farewell," was 

 Mr. Butler's judgment of this lapse. A year later the man 

 came back to the Padre badly wounded, but amazingly cheerful. 

 When Mr. Butler tried to express his sympathy the man's only 

 comment was, " Well, it might have been worse." Looking at 

 the wreck before him, Mr. Butler wondered, and asked, " How 

 much worse ? " " Why, I might have been dead," was the 

 surprised reply. 



Mr. Butler believes that one of the most popular sermons he 

 delivered to troops was preached one bitterly cold day when 

 the men were shivering at an open-air service. " I think the 

 best sermon I can preach to you to-day," he said, " is no sermon 

 at all." 



He has a high opinion of the judgment of soldiers, con- 

 sidering them to be fine judges of real religion, but allows they 

 do not like the butter laid on too thick, and they read their 

 chaplain's character very quickly. 



Mr. Butler regards the time spent with the troops as the 



