352 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



did not find six days a week rather a toil and labour throughout 

 the season, replied that so far from it, he only wished the 

 season lasted for twelve months in place of six, adding that 

 he only omitted three days during the whole of the last long 

 season, and found himself on the very last day with only one 

 horse and that a hack and lame, all the rest having been 

 screwed up. There are some then I find who like hunting 

 better than I do, for if I had the power I do not think I should 

 hunt more than three or four days a week, unless staying at a 

 place like Melton, where to exist you must hunt, for there is 

 nothing else to be done. 



(Here follows a page of personal impressions which Mr. 

 Vickerman says " I should not record except in a private journal 

 like the present, intended merely for my own inspection and 

 amusement, and to recall to my recollection years hence, if I 

 live so long, the scenes and circumstances of the passing hour 

 connected with a favourite pastime.") He then goes on : — A 

 sinoular character with these hounds is a Mr. Gascoiofne, livino- 

 at Somerby. He is a square-built man of between fifty and 

 sixty, and about i6 stone, riding peaceful and very quiet horses 

 which, nevertheless, he is always apostrophising for being 

 unruly, in good round oaths, which he seems to make particu- 

 larly sound and sonorous, as if to give effect to them. To-day 

 his face was caught by a bramble called "a lawyer" and scored 

 like a gridiron, bleeding a good deal, and when the blood had 

 dried, his appearance while swearing at his horse, when chest- 

 ing a rail, which he had ridden at, a sight I shall not readily 

 forget. 



Friday, November 14th. The Ouorn at vSix Hills, &c. 

 Lord Gardner rode to-day with his accustomed indifference 

 when there is nothing particular worth riding for. He seems 

 susceptible of cold, for after any galloping he buttons up his 

 coat, carefully elevating the collar closely round his neck. The 

 fear which these Leicestershire men have of encountering a 

 little blind ditch, while they will unhesitatingly charge an 

 enormously stifi" bullfinch or a flight of rails, seems singular to 

 me coming from a land of ditches, and it was most amusing to 

 see them pull up at a little hedge with dry grass, not venturing 

 to take it because they could not see the ditch (for which they 

 were earnestly looking) for the best of all reasons because there 

 was none. So much is this a habit, that these hard-riding 

 Leicestershire men fear these little places more than the bigger 

 ones to which they are more accustomed, and as I hear 



