388 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



In a run with the staghounds from Pleshey on Tuesday, 

 December 12th, the hind "Lucy Long" — a run in which 

 every one had the opportunity of sharing at some time or 

 other, though Captain Pilgrim was invisible from first to last. 

 Captain Duff having his liver in good order rode his chestnut 

 rather wildly on to hounds at the beginning when they went 

 slowly, and was rated good-naturedly, but showed more pluck 

 than I had yet seen him display. Williamson having changed 

 Follet's brute for a better one, made up for his misfortunes on 

 Monday. Young Wake from Northamptonshire (son of Sir 

 C. Wake) rode that good brown horse of Cassidy's, which 

 carried Du Cane last season, very pluckily and certainly, as 

 I told him, took his twenty-five shillings' worth out of him and 

 got a fall at the finish. Harvey Tower, far too heavy for his 

 little brown mare, had three or four falls. F. Petre was on 

 his brown horse, and Parker on his grey again, but neither 

 was very ferocious to-day. Soames again on his old black, 

 with fourteen miles to return ; .Sparrow on a fine stamp of 

 weight carrier, and Button on a good-shaped though spare 

 bay horse, having come this morning twenty-six miles from 

 Mucking and returning to Billericay. (For the run with the 

 stag " Chief Justice," so named in compliment to Mr. Denman, 

 who was out on February iith, 1851, from Leaden Roothing 

 to Hockerill within an hour, you must read Mr. Vickerman's 

 diary.) 



.Saturday, February 15. In a run with an Old Park fox 

 on this day, Mr. Vickerman. who was riding "Wide-awake," 

 found himself in a very uncomfortable position, and then 

 describes how his horse, after rolling on his side, fell into 

 the deep ditch, half full of water, nearly taking Mr. V. 

 with him, squatting on his hams, which deposited him fairly 

 on his back, with all his legs upwards, and drawn towards each 

 other like a dog when begging on his back. 



Mr. Vickerman goes on to say : — Giving the reins to 

 Ridley while I scrambled back over the fence and then taking 

 them again myself, I got him to apply at the nearest farm for 

 help. Only two others besides myself had taken this line and 

 they had gone on ; and there I stood by myself, looking at 

 poor " Wide-awake's " helpless and uncomfortable situation, 

 thinking of the fate of poor " Little John," and reflecting that 

 I had never before got a horse into a ditch during the eight 

 seasons I have hunted in Essex, and contrasting the sudden 

 change of my present quiet and isolated position with the 

 strong excitement of a few minutes previously, when sweeping 



