Thoby Priory 



CHAPTER XI. 



Thoby Priory— Mr. Vickermans Diary— Covert Side by Wm. and Hy. Bcrraud 

 —" Carloii'''—" Chancellor"— Jim Cassidy—Mr. Conye/s Eccentricities— 

 His Concern for Mr. Vickerman-The Pulling " Cognac "—His Jumping 

 Feats— Mr. Vickerman's Patent Bit— Frederick Beckington— Season 1844-45 



— Hunting Caps— The great Row Wood Run— Gate Jumping— How to live 

 to Eighty— Drag Hunting— Falls—Sam Adams's Stag Hounds— Root Ditches 



— Conyevs Meets at Laindon Hills— The Purchase of ''Cognac" — At the 

 Harboro' Hotel, Melton, Nov., 1^^6—Kirby Gate— Cream Gorse—Mr. Greene 

 of Rolleston—Lord Strathmore—Sir Richard Sutton— Mr. Finch, M.P.— 

 Burley-on-the-Hill—Ben Morgan— Old Goosey. 



HAVING come to the end of my hunting notes, on the 

 principle of reserving the best for the last I now add the 

 following extracts taken from the very interesting hunting 

 journals which the late Charles Ranken Vickerman (Secretary 

 for twenty years to the Essex Stag Hounds) kept with such 

 care and accuracy for a period extending over fifty years, 

 prefacing the same with his description of his well known 

 horses " Carlow " and "Cognac," whose portraits, together with 

 that of his faithful servant P>ederick Beckington taken from 

 the painting "Covert Side" by William and Henry Barraud, 

 will be found facing page 314. 



