>rR. IIENRV VIGNE. 339 



hunted a very extensive range of open country through 

 the bounty of landlords and tenants. 



To prevent large fields the fixtures were kept as secret 

 as possible. In his later years Mr. Vigne's method of 

 ensuring secrecy was amusing. The fixtures were com- 

 municated to a few favoured friends by post cards upon 

 which was often added the caution, " Do not let servants 

 know" — an injunction somewhat at variance with this style 

 of correspondence ! A story, for the truth of which we do 

 not vouch, relates that inside Mr. Vigne's hat was in- 

 scribed, " Do not bleed me, but give me plenty of brandy 

 and water." This was his prescription for "first aid" in 

 case of a fall. A life-like portrait, painted by Mr. J. [. 

 Shannon and presented to Mr. V'igne by numerous friends, 

 has been reproduced for the present work. It shows him 

 as he was — a true type of an English gentleman. Many 

 good sportsmen owed their first lessons in hunting to Mr. 

 Vigne. Amongst them were Mr. C. E. Green, afterwards 

 Master of the Essex Hounds ; Mr. Hervey Foster and 

 Mr. Robert Lockwood, secretaries to that pack. Mr. 

 Green's brother, Major George Green, writes of Mr. Vigne : 

 " Good wine needs no bush ; he was a sportsman among 

 ten thousand, and I consider it a privilege to have teen 

 entered by him. He made more boys into sportsmen than 



