364 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



There I had a dry chanoe. of which I availed myself, and 

 putting" my feet in warm water I escaped without cold, which 

 was scarcely to be hoped considering- my recent illness, state 

 of health and sudden quenching- in the brook. Had I not 

 preserved my presence of mind and shifted my position as I 

 came to the trees, I consider that I must have been seriously 

 hurt if not killed, but as it is, I escaped with a contusion on 

 the knee and leg. How lamentable that " Cognac " should 

 almost more than counterbalance his extraordinary powers by 

 such a temper and mouth. He went at the trees with the 

 steady determination and the despairing" stride with which he 

 went at the gate by Canfield Hart last season, and so nearly 

 rolled over. When in that mind I believe no abyss would stop 

 his progress so as to prevent his plunging- into it, 



(In a day with the Ouorn at Six Hills, on March iith, 

 1848, when most of the field had gone home. Mr. Vickerman, 

 riding a hireling which gave him a rare cropper in the early 

 part of the day, came in for a good hunting run of an hour, 

 finishing off in a covert of Mr. Fox's of Wyvendon, in the Vale 

 of Langar. Captain Houblon of Hallingbury, being one of 

 those who stayed for the finish. Mr. Fox was very hospitable 

 and provided a capital luncheon in his fine old house (Mr. 

 Vickerman does not say at what hour) but that he sat next to 

 Sir Richard Sutton, who recognised him in spite of the mud 

 bath he had had, and made the remark, " I like to see a man 

 come home dirty, but these Melton gentlemen are wonderfully 

 afraid of a little mud," alluding to the bulk of the field who, 

 hearing they were going to draw the Widmerpool country had 

 turned homewards. 



How Mr. Vickerman hunted his horses " Carlow " and 

 "Cognac" in Essex, Thursday, March i6th, and had them at 

 Melton in readiness for Saturday, March i8th, and how he 

 joined other Meltonians for a day with the Pytchley at Cold 

 Ashby, getting to Crick in a cattle truck, and of the sport 

 that followed, is it not written in his "Diary"? As also his 

 experiences on a hireling on March 25th, in a run with the 

 Ouorn from Cream Gorse to ground at Frisby Station in an 

 eighteen or twenty minutes' burst in which Mr. Gilmour, Lord 

 Wilton, Captain Maynard, Mr. Geary and Mr. Vickerman's 

 friend, Mr. Watkins, showed the way? 



On April iith, Mr. Vickerman did not find a snaffle and 

 gag bit very satisfactory for holding "Cognac" in a run with 

 staghounds, if he did his discussion with two policemen at 

 Hatfield Heath, on the failure of the Chartist demonstrations of 



