64 Recollections of the Vine Hunt. 



but, about Christmas, used to bring his horses to 

 the Vine, for the remainder of the season. He was 

 a better sportsman, and a far bolder rider, than his 

 brother. His horses were well bred, and good in 

 themselves, but had generally the fault of being not 

 quite up to his weight. 



Then follow some neither red nor black. Mr 

 Deersley, father-in-law to Mr. St. John, and living with 

 him, hunted a good deal. He was a fine old man, 

 and a bold rider for his age; he was always well 

 mounted, and perhaps a little too much inclined to be 

 diffuse on the merits and value of his horse. I re- 

 member, one day when a young man was looking 

 doubtfully at a low drop leap, Mr. Deersley rode over 

 it, saying, ' Come along. Sir, you will be ashamed 

 not to follow an old man of seventy.' 



Mr. William Wickham, of Bullington, with two neat 

 little horses, a bay and a gray, used to hunt with us 

 whenever the hounds came on his side of the country. 

 His brother James more rarely. 



My old friend Charles Harwood, of Dean, came out 

 as often as he could, on a well shaped but not perfectly 

 sound old horse, called ' The Kicker,' * which had 

 been given to him by Mr. Chute. Charles farmed the 



* ' The Kicker ' was so-called on account of the consequences 

 which followed every attempt to touch him on the rump. George 

 made a curious use of this peculiarity. Mr. Chute's huntsman 

 and whipper-in used to clear the course at the Basingstoke Races, 

 in their scarlet coats, where they cut as conspicuous a figure pro- 

 portionately, at this little meeting, as Mr. Davis and his attendants, 

 in their royal liveries, do at Ascot. When George, mounted on 

 The Kicker, found the mob inclined to close in again too soon 

 after he had passed along the ropes, he just touched The Kicker 

 on the rump, who immediately justified his name, and compelled 

 the crowd to keep their distance. 



