Hunting in many countries / by Charles Richardson. (1922)

THERE ARE TWO HUNTS in the north of England which 5 owing probably in some degree to their remote- ness, and perhaps in a larger degree to their insignificance, have up to the present received comparatively no treatment at the hands of the hunting historian.Probably some of my readers w^ill pull up short at the word " insignificance," and therefore I must explain that I only use the word in a comparative sense, for the two hunts-the Braes of Derwent and the North Durham-are not in the least insignificant as regards the sport they show, the attention they attract, the fields they draw, and so forth ; but being small countries, and two days a week establishments, they are not exactly on a plane with their neighbours-the Tynedale on the north and the Zetland to the south.Law there never have beeu any collieries, and here the country remains just as it was half a century ago, with hardly a new cottage, and no increase of population whatever.Indeed, the country has only one very small village and two tiny hamlets in its area, and yet it extends seven miles from Lanchester to the moors, and seven miles, measuring crossways, from Rowley station to Tow Law.There is only one church (Satley, the village which has been meintioned) and scattered farmhouses, and as long as foxes keep within the boundaries of the district they can hardly be headed, for the land is all grass, and one can at times cross it from Rowley to Tow Law without seeing a soul in the fields in winter months.Most of this country is a high-lying plain, with little valleys here and there, and less than a mile west of Lanchester you are on the high ground, and the folds of the hills are insigni- ficant, which means that as a rule the galloping is sound, with not too many steep hills to climb.The coverts, too, are small and scattered, and for the most part easily drawn.There were uo big woods until Lord Bute's-so generally called, but now the property of the successors of Lord Ninian Criohtcn- Stuart.-axereached, a,nd these lie cloae to Rowley station at the extreme north-western corner of the hunt.(During the War a great portion of these plantations were cut down.)Going westward from Lanchester the first covert reached is Humber Hill, a gorse-or whin, as it is called in th.e north-of about tem acres, situated on an open hillside.Here foxes are always bred, and here they are always found all through the season, and a, find here is, as a rule, a pretty sight, for the fox is generally viewed by all the field.A mile further west comes the Woodlands estate, where many good horses, including Scot Free, winner of the Two Thousand, were bred in the eighties.There are many coverts on the estate, and the late owner, Mr. W. B. Van Haans- bergen, though not hunting himself, was a good preserver of foxes, who ent.ertained the hunt, to breakfast at veiry frequent intervals.The Woodlands converts' are beautifully situated, but they have become very open at the bottom of late years, and hounds can go through them when running almost as fast as they can travel in the open.The Sawrm'll Wood, Sheepwalks whin, and Rippon Burn are the best of b2 very notable hunts in recent years.In one of these Mr.Rogerson's hounds made their longest point on record, going right across the Braes of Derwent country into that of the Ilaydon, and finishing five-and-twenty miles from the kennels at Mount Oswald.No doubt there was at least one change of foxes, but it was a singularly fine hunt, and after leaving Muggleswick (in the Braes of Derwent country) hounds never touched a covert until they reached Espershields, quite near the town of Blanchland.They probably changed foxes at Muggleswick, where the earths were open; but there was no stop, and, as a matter of fact, they entered the covert near Combe Bridges, went close to the earths, and came into the open near the Vicarage; then, going up the grass valley of the Derwent toi Edmondbyers, and thence on to Espershields, and Bog Hall, in the Ilaydon country, where they were stopped.The other big hunt from the Oak Gill was faster and not so long.It began with hounds going westwards to Castleside, where they turned abruptly, and were lost tem- porarily by most of the field.They ran, however, down the Knitsley Valley to Woodla.nds,thence to Browney Ba.nk, and Bromshields, skirted Tow Law, and turning right-handed came back to Broadwood, where the fox was killed in the open.The time was one hour and ten minutes, twelve miles were covered, and there was a seven-mile point in it, while there was only one slight check at Browney Bank, and hounds recovered the line without being cast.When hounds meet at Rowley station, which is the furthest meet from the kennels, they draw the Whitehall Plantation, and then Lord Bute's, and these are the most northerly coverts of the hunt, and fairly well foxed, though the raw material is not so much in evidence as it once was, owing to the fact that stone quarrying on a considerable scale is being carried on in the North Plantation-one of three plantations which form a chain of woods.For many years hounds used to meet at the comer of the North Plantation, nearly two miles from the present meeting place, and with great consistency foxes used to break over Eliza Farm and go down into the best country.HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES.Bute's from all parts of the hunt, and I remember one warm day very late in the sesison, during Mr. Maynard's mastership, when hounds worked a line very slowly from Rackwoodside, taking nearly an hour and a half to cover a distance which I saw Mr. Rogerson's hounds cover in thirty-five minutes three of four years ago.It was a bit of patient and very fine hound work, and as it was almost the last day of the season the Master was very anxious to kill the fox.He actually rode into the covert to see if an earth he knew of was closed, and, finding it was, he came back to the customary corner, where the field was drawn up.Luncheon was tackled, men got off their horses and lounged about in warm sunshine, and from the depths of the w^ood the occasional note of a hound was heard.Time passed, and the notes grew fewer.Many of the field departed, but the Master was still anxious, and at length at his request I went with the late Mr. Alan Green- well (then secretary of the hunt) to look for hounds and huntsman.It is a big wood with many rides, and we sea^rched for quite a quarter of an hour for now there was no sound at all.HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES.loved a day at High Stoop or Deau House, and I once remember him running a de©r from the north plantation (Lord Bute's) to the fishponds at Woodlands, where the deer took to the water, and the Master called his hounds off and beat a hasty retreat.He did not know, by the way, that his hounds were running a deer, for he had been in covert when the quarry broke away, but I told him when he joined me, a few minutes afterwards, and all he said was : ' ' Nowt of t' sort, thou's seen a cuddy " (donkey).Even the fact that hounds ran the lane from Lord Bute's to the Five Lane Ends did not convince him.After old Vasey's day John Greenwell's own pack hunted the district and showed fine sport.This Master was a bom huntsman, first rate on the horn, and with a most melodious voice.He occasionally hunted a fox about Sand Edge, or Cat Back, and at times took his hounds into the extreme west of the Braes of Derwent country, near the moors, when if he found a fox he simply could not help hunting it.It was with these hounds, hunting round Newton Hall, the residence ol Mr. Maynard, then Master of the North Durham, that 1 saw a free fight between hunting people and farm labourers, which I have described elsewhere ; but such a thing was absolutely unusual, and I never heard of a similar occurrence anywhere in the north of England.Mr. Vasey's hounds were a very scratch lot to look at, being of all sizes, and many of them a good deal on the leg.He liked a big hound, because oi the high stone walls, and here I may remark that harriers always did better than beagles in this country for the same reason; but this applied chiefly to the most westerly ground, where the walls' were much higher than they are lower down the country.Near the moors all the fences are formidable walb; further down the valley there are tv.'o or three thorn fences to every wall, and roundabout Lanche&ter the country is suitable even for amaJl beagles. ]\Ir.Greenwell's hounds were a great improvement on the Wolsingham.Their owner went here and there, procuring drafts, at a time when there v/ere many harriers in the market, and as he drafted both at the head and tail he soon had a fairly even pack, which were wonderfully under control.I used to whip in to him at times, and I have one particular a sheep track.Bearing gradually left-handed, they reached the Stuartfield Lodge Plantation, and now we agreed that if possible they should be stopped.But the covert just named was then terribly thick, and difficult for horses in the centre, and, though we could hear hounds, we could not reach them.After some time, and a great deal of horn blowing, it became certain they had gone on ; but we could find no trace of them, and we separated, and each of us rode about the country until dark, vainly looking for hounds.When I reached Broomshields John Greenwell was standing at the kennel door, and announced that a single hound had cast up.We spent an anxious evening, going constantly to the kennel ; but I do not recollect that any more hounds turned up, and it was a night of terrible storm, so that anything like a search party was out of the question.We were astir early the next morning, and shortly after daylight a lad on a pony appeared, with a dirty piece of paper in his hand, on which was scrawled, " Dogs is here."There was no name or address, but the lad explsiined that he came from an out-of-the-way moorland farm, that just before dusk on the preceding afternoon the dogs had rushed into their " back hemmel " -a local word describing a cowhouse, or similar outbuilding.This particular " back 20 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES.hemmel " happened to be empty, and the fanner had shut hounds in, and when we got there he explained that " They had fair rived the place down in the night."They had done no harm, but they had not been fed, and had no doubt made a terrible din, and it had never struck the farmer what was wrong.After some investigation we found part of the brush and part of the mask and other slight remains of a fox, but practically all the bones as well as the flesh and fur had been devoured.Mr. Greenwell, when his health became indifferent, sold his harriers to the late Lord Lonsdale (brother of the present peer), and they were located at or near Penrith for the use of the tenants on the Lowther estate.After Mr. John Greenwell disposed of his harriers, hare hunt- ing at Broomshields was by no means at an end.The Durham Beagles, of which Mr. Creighton Foster was Master in the early 'eighties, and the Darlington Foot Harriers, under the control of Mr. T. Watson, were very frequent visitors over a period of several seasons.Creighton Foster was, like Mr. Vasey, of Wolsingham, quite a " character," and there was a certain amount of festivity mixed up with his hunting, nor did he appear to care much what sort of sport he showed so long as he ran a hare or two and killed an occasional one.He wa-s, in fact, very keen in the forenoon, but he was not a young man, and when he became tired he would hand his horn to anyone of his field who would take it, and, finding a coign of 'vantage on high ground, watch the proceedings from afar.At such times one naturally wanted to be with hounds, but those who stayed near the Master were entertained by his curious comments on the hunting which was taking place, bv a wonderful flow of chaff, bestowed on whoever might be near, and by a string of stories concerning the sport of the district.Creighton was an ardent foxhunter, and had been a hard man to hounds, but he was well beyond middle age when hfj became a " currant jelly " huntsman, and had lost his keenness.Still he got to hounds pretty quickly when they killed, and it was hardly fair to say of him-as it was said at the time-that he hunted the luncheon cart all the fore- noon, and the Broomshields saddle room afterwards.This saddle room, by the way, was for some years a sort of sporting club for the district, and on hunting days many were enter-c tained there, as well as at the hall.Hunt servants were always very welcome, and farmers, gamekeepers, and others would find their way there on any day that either foxhounds or harriers were in the neighbourhood; but the great day was Saturday in the winter months, when all and sundry were allowed to try their greyhounds over the estate.John Green- well was almost as fond of coursing as he was of hunting, and as there were scores of greyhounds within a ten-mile radius, and leave for trials elsewhere was not easily obtained, it will be understood that there was a rush to Broomshields, especially during the inclosed coursing boom, when meetings were being constantly held at