At a dinner at Lady Georgiana Fullerton’s my sister and I met Aubrey de Vere, who delighted Alice with his conversation. The general company, however, seem to have chiefly amused themselves with the long and, on the whole, silly controversy which was appearing in _The Times_ regarding the sequence of the horse’s steps as he walks. It began by my horse’s walk in “The Roll Call” having been criticised by those who held to the old conventional idea. How many hours I had moved alongside horses to see for myself exactly how a horse puts his feet down in the walk! I had told many people to go down on all fours themselves and walk, noting the sequence with their own hands and knees, which was sure to be correct instinctively. At this same dinner Lady Lothian told me she had followed my advice, and the idea of that sedate _grande dame_, with grey hair combed under a white lace cap, pacing round her room on all fours I thought delightful. Since those days I have been vindicated by the snap-shot.
I find many Diary pages chiefly devoted to preparations for “Quatre Bras” and the doing of several pen-and-ink reminiscences of what I had seen at Woolwich and Aldershot, and exhibited at the “Dudley.” Some were bought by the picture dealer Gambart, and some by Agnew. One of those pen-and-inks was the “Halt!”--those Scots Greys I only half saw through the dust storm at Aldershot pulling up in the midst of a tremendous charge, very close to us. Gambart had come to my studio to see if he could get anything, and when I told him of this “Halt!” which I had just sent to the “Dudley,” he there and then wrote me a cheque for it, without seeing it. When he went there to claim it, behold! it had already been sold, before the opening. He was very angry, and threatened law against the “Dudley” for what he called “skimming” the show before the public got a chance. But the possessor was, like Mr. Galloway, a _Maanchester maan_, and these are very firm on what they call “our rights.” It was no use. I had to make Gambart a compensation drawing. This introduces Mr. Whitehead, for whom I was to paint “Balaclava.” He had the “Halt!” tight.
On Corpus Christi Day that year Alice and I, having received our invitations from the Bishop of Salford, of happy pilgrimage memory, to join in the services and procession in honour of the Blessed Sacrament at the Missionary College, Mill Hill, we went thither that glorious midsummer day. At page 127 of the Diary I have put down certain sentiments about the practice of the Catholic faith in England, and I express a longing to see the Host carried through English fields. I little thought in one year to see my hope realised; yet so it was at Mill Hill. After vespers in the little church, the procession was formed, and I shall long remember the choristers, in their purple cassocks, passing along a field of golden buttercups and the white and gold banners at the head of the procession floating out against a typical English sky as their bearers passed over a little hillock which commands a lovely view of the rich landscape. The bishop bore the Host, and six favoured men held the canopy. Franciscan nuns in the procession sang the hymns.