The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent | Page 6

had powers to collect customs, to
hold a court, and to try cases in much the same way that a lord provost
had.
On one occasion when a case was to be tried, two attorneys appeared
from the town of Tralee, about thirty miles off. Now John Hickson had
his own ideas about the attorneys of those days--ideas such as all
honest men had, but dared not express. So he sent a crier through the
town to say that the court was adjourned for a fortnight. When the
appointed day arrived, the attorneys arrived also, so again the
melodious tones of the crier proclaimed through the town that the court
was adjourned for yet another fortnight, Captain Hickson remarking to

his wife that he was not going to be helped to administer justice by
those who earned their living on injustice. The attorneys gave it up in
despair, leaving Captain Hickson to lay down the law as he liked, and
to do him justice, his ideas were more conducive to peace and order
than the arguments of Irish attorneys generally are.
He was loved and revered by the people, so that when the cholera raged
in 1833 and 1834, and the constabulary were ordered to go into the
houses to remove the corpses (this to prevent the people 'waking' the
dead, and so spreading the contagion), they dared not enter the cabins
unless Captain Hickson went with them, as the people were so enraged
at their dead being molested that they would have killed the police.
Fortunately Captain Hickson had enough moral influence to make the
people obey the law.
In the eighties he would have been shot in the back by some scoundrel
who had primed himself with Dutch courage from adulterated whisky.
He raised a Yeomanry Corps at the time of the Whiteboys to guard the
country against these lawless bands, and against the dreaded French
invasion. This regiment was called the Dingle Yeomanry, and the tales
about it are many.
On one occasion when Captain Hickson was in London, the general
from Dublin inspected the corps. In the absence of the commanding
officer, his brother was ordered to parade the battalion, and being a
nervous young man, he completely forgot all the words of command,
so to the unconcealed amusement of the old martinet from the capital,
he shouted:--
'Boys, do as you always do.'
It says well for the discipline of the regiment that they did not
implicitly obey the order.
His mother, this Mrs. Judith Hickson, was the only one of my
grand-parents I ever saw, and very little impression she has left on my
memory, except a notion that she had less sense of humour than

pertains to most Irishwomen by the blessing of God and their own
mother wit.
My father was a Roman Catholic, and my mother a Protestant. By the
terms of the marriage settlement, we were all brought up in her faith,
which occasioned a tremendous row at that time, and nowadays would
never be tolerated by the priests.
All the same my father was an obstinate man, not disposed to care
much for the whole College of Cardinals, and indifferent if he were
cursed with bell and book. Of course he was not a good-tempered man,
or he would not have justified his nickname of Red Precipitate, but he
spared the rod with me, and failed to keep me in order. I was the
youngest of a pretty large family and the pet into the bargain.
My eldest brother, John, was drowned at St. Malo. He was unmarried,
and his profession was to do nothing as handsomely as he could.
James was in the 13th Light Dragoons, and subsequently in the 11th.
He saw no service, and was an excellent soldier at mess and off duty. I
am not qualified to speak with authority about his fulfilment of the
trumpery trivialities which fill up garrison life, but here is one anecdote
about him.
Soon after Lord Cardigan took command of the 13th Light Dragoons, a
great many of the officers left the corps, and a man wrote to the papers
to say that this was chiefly due to the great expense of the mess.
My brother retorted in print that for his part the reason was due to its
being 'incompatible with my feelings as a gentleman to remain in the
regiment as it is equally impossible to exchange out of a regiment that
has the undeserved misfortune to be commanded by his lordship.'
Edward lived at Dingle, and was much liked by the people there. He
was an active magistrate and a conscientious man. He married and left
two sons, one in the Horse Artillery and the other a colonel in the
Engineers. They have all joined the great majority.

Robert,