A Shepherd's Life: Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs

Introductory remarks--Wiltshire little favoured by tourists--Aspect of the downs--Bad weather--Desolate aspect--The bird-scarer--Fascination of the downs--The larger Salisbury P...

The Salisbury of the villager--The cathedral from the meadows--Walks to Wilton and Old Sarum--The spire and a rainbow--Charm of Old Sarum--The devastation--Salisbury from Old Sa...

Of the few widely separated villages, hidden away among the lonely downs in the large, blank spaces between the rivers, the one I love best is Winterbourne Bishop. Yet of the en...

Caleb Bawcombe--An old shepherd's love of his home--Fifty years' shepherding--Bawcombe's singular appearance--A tale of a titlark--Caleb Bawcombe's father--Father and son--A gra...

Caleb's shepherding began in childhood; at all events he had his first experience of it at that time. Many an old shepherd, whose father was shepherd before him, has told me tha...

To me the most interesting of Caleb's old memories were those relating to his father, partly on account of the man's fine character, and partly because they went so far back, be...

Deer-stealing on Salisbury Plain--The head-keeper Harbutt--Strange story of a baby--Found as a surname--John Barter the village carpenter--How the keeper was fooled--A poaching...

General remarks on poaching--Farmer, shepherd, and dog--A sheep-dog that would not hunt--Taking a partridge from a hawk--Old Gaarge and Young Gaarge--Partridge-poaching--The she...

A fox-trapping shepherd--Gamekeepers and foxes--Fox and stoat--A gamekeeper off his guard--Pheasants and foxes--Caleb kills a fox--A fox-hunting sheep-dog--Two varieties of foxe...

Great bustard--Stone curlew--Big hawks--Former abundance of the raven--Dogs fed on carrion--Ravens fighting--Ravens' breeding-places in Wilts--Great Ridge Wood ravens--Field-far...

Starlings' singing--Native and borrowed sounds--Imitations of sheep-bells--The shepherd on sheep-bells--The bells for pleasure, not use--A dog in charge of the flock--Shepherd c...

One of the shepherd's early memories was of Dan'l Burdon, a labourer on the farm where Isaac Bawcombe was head-shepherd. He retained a vivid recollection of this person, who had...

The prettily-named Wylye is a little river not above twenty miles in length from its rise to Salisbury, where, after mixing with the Nadder at Wilton, it joins the Avon. At or n...

Watch--His visits to a dew-pond--David and his dog Monk--Watch goes to David's assistance--Caleb's new master objects to his dog--Watch and the corn-crake--Watch plays with rabb...

The Bawcombes at Doveton Farm--Caleb finds favour with his master--Mrs. Ellerby and the shepherd's wife--The passion of a childless wife--The curse--A story of the "mob"--The at...

Old memories--Hindon as a borough and as a village--The Lamb Inn and its birds--The "mob" at Hindon--The blind smuggler--Rawlings of Lower Pertwood Farm--Reed, the thresher and...

An old Wiltshire woman's memories--Her home--Work on a farm--A little bird-scarer--Housekeeping--The agricultural labourers' rising--Villagers out of work--Relief work--A game o...

Yarnborough Castle sheep-fair--Caleb leaves Doveton and goes into Dorset--A land of strange happenings--He is home-sick and returns to Winterbourne Bishop--Joseph, his brother,...

How the materials for this book were obtained--The hedgehog-hunter--A gipsy taste--History of a dark-skinned family--Hedgehog eaters--Half-bred and true gipsies--Perfect health-...

Breaking a sheep-dog--The shepherd buys a pup--His training--He refuses to work--He chases a swallow and is put to death--The shepherd's remorse--Bob, the sheep-dog--How he was...

General remarks--Great Ridge Wood--Encounter with a roe-deer--A hare on a stump--A gamekeeper's memory--Talk with a gipsy--A strange story of a hedgehog--A gipsy on memory--The...

Moral effect of the great man--An orphaned village--The masters of the village.--Elijah Raven--Strange appearance and character--Elijah's house--The owls--Two rooms in the house...

Isaac Bawcombe's family--The youngest son--Caleb goes to seek David at Wilton sheep-fair--Martha, the eldest daughter--Her beauty--She marries Shepherd Ierat--The name of Ierat-...

Evening talks--On the construction of sheep-folds--Making hurdles--Devil's guts--Character in sheep-dogs--Sally the spiteful dog--Dyke the lost dog who returned--Strange recover...