The Revs. P. A. Butler and *' Billy Butler " 133 



were looking forward to the moment when the baskets would 

 begin to arrive. Some kill-joy dared to suggest he had better 

 catch the fish first and see about baskets afterwards. Of course 

 no notice was taken of these croakers, and away went Purbeck 

 Pilgrim and his friend to Ireland, and no doubt thoroughly 

 enjoyed the holiday, as everyone does in Ireland ; but un- 

 fortunately the fish-baskets remained empty, for not a single 

 one was caught, and only one was seen on the rod of an en- 

 thusiastic angler who had bought it for twenty-five shillings just 

 to see what it felt like to have a salmon on his rod ! As a 

 matter of fact, it felt like nothing at all, at all, as it had views 

 of its own and got off again in exactly half a second. Twenty- 

 five shillings for half a second's run was an expensive burst. 



Mr. Butler has written a good deal on sport ; all the sporting 

 matter in the " Victorian Counties History of Dorset " is from 

 his pen, and many articles in papers and magazines. He writes 

 as he speaks, cheerily and amusingly, and has a good sense of 

 humour. He always signs himself " Purbeck Pilgrim." 



I fear from my account of his sport I may have misled my 

 readers into thinking Mr. Butler's parish is neglected, but this 

 is not so really ; he is one of the hardest-working parish priests, 

 and never allows sport to come first : duty comes first and sport 

 second. His parishioners always try to enable him to get away 

 to fish, shoot, or hunt ; they take pride in his prowess — at least, 

 that is how it seems to me ; perhaps they like a little reflected 

 glory for their village. 



This interesting character is a High Churchman, and he is 

 a socialistic old Tory who loves his people, and they love him. 

 His chief pride is his wee daughter on her Shetland pony, 

 entered to hounds a few years ago. 



The sayings of school-children are often amusing. In one 

 of this cleric's village schools the ten-year-old son of a village 

 carter was asked, " Why did Joseph tell his brethren not to fall 

 out by the way ? " He replied, " 'Cause there wern't no 

 tail-board t' the cart." 



I think Mr. Butler is what Bishop Temple would have 

 described as one of the " Nimrod, Ramrod, Fishing-rod Parsons." 



There is yet another parson Butler well known in the west 

 country, but he is no relation to " Purbeck Pilgrim," and 

 belonged to quite another generation. His name was the Rev. 



