52 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



further efforts in the same direction, for this memorandum 

 is: 



Want three pieces of wood for ships. 



Whether or not three more ships were constructed does 

 not appear. Probably the American change of naval 

 designs interfered. 



We were not debarred from seeing what we could of 

 field sports at Cundale, and in the following letter to my 

 sister is a singularly crude, not to say brutal, description 

 of my first experience of coursing : 



CUNDALE, i^th February 1863. 



I wish you had been here yesterday to see a coursing match. It 

 was such fun. The first two hares the first dog bit one of their legs 

 in two ; but falling over in a most insane manner (like Nettle over 

 the cart rut) the second caught the hare. 



But the best of all was a man whom we named Wildfire Sampson, 

 he is rather insane at times. He rode about the field on a little 

 pony as hard as he could, all the while shouting and yelling at any- 

 body he came near ; didn't care for any person, if they didn't 

 choose to get out of the way he'd run over them ; sometimes nearly 

 tumbling off : always first down to the place where the hare was 

 being killed. The common expression was " By Gor ! here 

 comes Sampson, let me be off ! " 



A great many hares got away. One ran so far that a dog who 

 was chasing it lay down on the road and couldn't go any further. 



The letter from which the above is extracted is dated 

 simply " Cundale I4th," but I get the actual date from 

 the 1863 Diary, which gives the " coursing match " as 

 occurring on I3th February in that year. 



It is clear that primitive instincts towards blood-letting 

 and frightfulness were somewhat dominant in us then, 

 and in confirmation of this I quote the Diary for 28th of 

 that same February : 



Bob and I went to Leckby Carr. Arminson Bland shot two 

 sparrows whilst we were there, Bob bought them for a penny. 

 This afternoon we had a cat hunt, and then walked to Mr Parker's 

 stacks, and there found six small mice, which we buried, Alivo ! 



