CHAPTER XIV. 



Season 1851-52 — Hunting in Snryey — A Dry Season — Surrey Fences — Season 

 1852-53 — The Red Lion, Dulverton — Stag Hunting on Exmoor — Mr. 

 Careiv — Dr. Collyns — The Castle Hotel, Lynton — The Surrey Stag Hounds — 

 Arthur Heathcote, M.S.H.—A Hunt Breakfast at the Durdans — Essex Stag 

 Hounds — Petres Four — Russian Deer — The Bishop of Walt ham — Season 

 1853-54 — H^«?', Pestilence and Famine — A Gloomy Outlook— Mr. Henley 

 Greaves, M.F.H. — Messrs. Tattersall — A bad Purchase — Blank Days — 

 Warnings off — The Surrey Deer '^ Snow'storm" — Season 1854-55 — Changing 

 Residences — Bagginga Subscriber — " The Clipper '' gets aivay— Catch him your- 

 self, then ! — The Spotted Hind — Sir Charles Smith to the front — Thomas 

 Mashiter — Old Superstitions — Unlucky Questions — William Honey wood's 

 Harriers — Boreham House — Mr. Vickerman's Summary of Season 1856-57 — 

 A Good Run in 1858 — James Stallibrass means Mischief — Season 1858-59 — 

 Donate's Comet — The Great Drought — Dangerous Going. 



Season 1851-52. 



FOUND Mr. Vickerman hunting in Surrey and the accounts 

 of his sport in that country are as fully described and 

 interesting- as those of his days in Essex when he managed 

 to steal a day now and then. " Cognac's " name crops up 

 again in the Journal entry of March 13th: — On the following- 

 Monday, I called on Lord Milford at the "St. George's 

 Hotel," Albemarle Street, when to my great surprise his lord- 

 ship told me that he was daily in the habit of seeing a horse 

 of mine, a fine looking chestnut, called " Cognac," that it 

 belonged to his doctor, Mr. Hicks, who drove it, and who 

 nerved the horse to cure lameness. His lordship went on to 

 say that he had heard a great deal about the horse and about 

 my love for hunting, which he thought the best thing possible 

 for any one condemned to a sedentary harassing profession, 

 that he himself used to be very fond of hunting, and had 

 flattered himself could also ride a little. 



I had often wondered what had become of " Cognac," and 

 had not expected to hear of him from such a quarter, and I 

 was puzzled to know how Lord Milford could have learned 

 so much of the horse's performance while he was mine, until 

 he told me that Wilkinson and Kidd were his saddlers, as they 

 were mine, and no doubt George Kidd, who was always 

 interested in the horse, had enlightened his lordship about him. 



