362 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



field (including- StalHbrass, Crouchman, on Adams' new chesnut) 

 and Meshech were never seen again after the first twenty-five 

 minutes. Bean, Garland, and the others belonging to the 

 hounds could not live with them. The first went the best of 

 the lot, and he could only creep up when a check occurred ; he 

 got a regular cropper and but for his horse refusing a fence 

 would have gone right into a pond. 



" Cognac's " mouth became pretty dead at the finish, and 

 he pulled hard enough to straighten one of the curb hooks. 

 F. Barker's horse towards the finish almost dropped and was 

 only restored by bleeding him. 



When I rode over the hound, I exclaimed to Peters, 

 *' Thank goodness I am not with Conyers ! " and when in the 

 latter part of the run I pulled up to allow the hounds to go 

 through a gateway and was thanked by Bean and others for 

 doing so. I could not help observing to Barker, "the luxury 

 of riding over a hound without being blown up, and receiving 

 thanks for not riding before the pack." A dozen times at 

 least, I regretted that I had not my cap on, for I had to keep 

 perpetually jamming my hat over my eyes to keep it on, and 

 " Coonac " takes such a swino- at his fences that near Canfield 

 Hart he fairly shook it off my head. 



We had twenty-five miles of road work before we reached 

 home, coming by way of Bocking, Braintree, Waltham, 

 Chelmsford, and Writtle, and reached Blackmore soon after 

 8 o'clock, making about eighty miles for the horses since they 

 left their stable. Eighty miles and riding a horse like 

 "Cognac" was tolerable work for his rider, and yet I felt in 

 the evening, as Jack remarked, fresher and less fatigued than 

 on any evening since he had been with me ; so much for the 

 exhilarating effects of sport. I enjoyed the run a second time 

 in my dreams at night, but with the tragical result of " Cognac " 

 dropping down dead with me in the field. Both horses were 

 very stiff next day, and " Cognac's " sides rather rubbed and 

 marked with the saddle where I had gripped him with my 

 knees. 



(On Monday, February 7th, 1848, Mr. Yickerman riding 

 " Cognac " with the Baron had a nasty cropper. The horse 

 was not so unpleasant to ride when going in front, but an 

 unluck)' turn with the stag on this day put him somewhat 

 behind. As he came down to a brook at which some horses 

 were stuck up, Mr. Vickerman says) : — I had great difficulty 

 keeping him to his line, and as I brought him down the field 

 I felt that I had lost all command of him, and therefore though 



