It was necessary to have a horse, and he bought one for 55 pounds,
which was not considered dear. He wrote home that the horse's name
was "Doctor": "I hope he is a Homoeopathist." From this, and from
the fact that he had already contemplated becoming a homoeopathic
doctor himself, I conclude that he had made the acquaintance of Dr.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon, the eminent homoeopathist, while he was doing
parish work in London. After his return to England Dr. Dudgeon was
his medical adviser, and remained one of his most intimate friends
until the end of his life. Doctor, the horse, is introduced into
Erewhon Revisited; the shepherd in Chapter XXVI tells John Higgs
that Doctor "would pick fords better than that gentleman could, I
know, and if the gentleman fell off him he would just stay stock
still."
Butler carried on his run for about four and a half years, and the
open-air life agreed with him; he ascribed to this the good health
he afterwards enjoyed. The following, taken from a notebook he kept
in the colony and destroyed, gives a glimpse of one side of his life
there; he preserved the note because it recalled New Zealand so
vividly.
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