SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Christopher Vane, of the ' Forests of Barnard 

 Castle and Marwood.' '"" Deer must have been 

 very numerous in Teesdale, for on the authority 

 of Mr. Christopher Saunderson, the Samuel 

 Pepys of Barnard Castle, whose diary is believed 

 to be preserved at Armathwaite Castle, we learn 

 that 'at Rood Day, 1673, there were above 400 

 red deer in Teesdale, but perished in the snow.' 

 It is thus tolerably evident that wild red deer 

 existed in Durham until the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century, or later, and it seems prob- 

 able that the original stock of the Cumbrian 

 forests of the present day was identical with 

 these deer. 



Falconry, the gentleman's sport par excellence 

 of mediaeval times, does not appear to have been 

 greatly practised in Durham, though reference is 

 made in the Boldon Book to the bishop's 

 falconer or keeper of the hawks. It is probable, 

 however, that so rugged and densely wooded a 

 county as Durham did not lend itself to the 

 sport, while on the other hand the moors would 

 not afford safe riding ground for following a 

 flight. With the gradual decay of the great 

 episcopal or baronial rights, sport became in time 

 the amusement of the many, and not of the few. 

 Hunting, which appears to have been always the 

 chief sport of the county, was firmly established 

 on a modern basis by Lord Darlington and 

 Ralph Lambton, in what must then have been 

 one of the best hunting countries in England,*' 

 parts of which still maintain their old repu- 

 tation. The western fells, unhuntable on 

 horseback, have for generations provided sport 

 for pedestrian packs of harriers, while at the 

 same time they afford admirable breeding grounds 

 for foxes. 



But it is in connexion with these same 

 western fells that the greatest change has come 

 over Durham sport. Time was, and that not 

 many years ago, when a bag of from twenty to 

 thirty brace of grouse killed over dogs, and dis- 

 tributed among three or four guns, would have 

 been held an excellent day's sport on almost any 

 Durham moor. To-day the same ground will 

 probably yield a bag five or six times as great. 

 The causes which have determined this result 

 are easy of explanation ; they are careful pre- 

 servation, ruthless extermination of vermin, 



'"" Both Barnard Castle and Marwood were chases, 

 but the term ' forests ' here probably includes Tees- 

 dale, as the grant from Charles I to Sir H. Vane of 

 date 1635, is of ' the Game in the Forest of Teesdale, 

 and Common of all the Parks, Chases, and Forests 

 within the Lordship of Barnard Castle.' This grant 

 makes mention of ' wild cattle,' but no record exists 

 of them. 



"In 1825 Nimrod considered Durham 'a very 

 sporting country,' and placed the Sedgefield portion 

 of it at ' the head of the provincials.' 



judicious heather-burning, and above all, sys- 

 tematic driving. Proof of what the latter has 

 effected is best illustrated by an anecdote repro- 

 duced from an article on ' Grouse Shootina: ' 

 contributed by the present writer to The Bad- 

 minton Magazine in November, 1903 : — 



It is but little more than half a century ago since the 

 late Mr. Milbank of Thorp Perrow, shooting over 

 dogs on famous Wcmmergill," made to his own gun 

 the excellent bag of some forty brace of grouse — I 

 forget the exact figure — and not ill-pleased, sent word 

 of his success to his kinsman, the then Duke of Cleve- 

 land, himself the owner of some of the best moors in 

 England. The Duke however was much perturbed 

 in spirit by the news, averring that such sport was 

 ' mere butchery,' and that if other people behaved 

 like his brother-in-law, game would become extinct. 

 Yet since those days upwards of a thousand brace 

 have been killed in a single day's shooting, not only 

 on Wemmergill, but on the Duke's adjoining High 

 Force Moors. 



Nor can this revolution in grouse-shooting be 

 disregarded from an economic point of view. 

 The rents of moors have risen enormously, in 

 some cases a hundredfold, and as a consequence, 

 a proportionate circulation of money has taken 

 place in the dales. Only last year [1906] 

 the local newspapers recorded the arrival at 

 Middleton-in-Teesdale of a special train from 

 Liverpool bearing a party of wealthy Americans 

 who had crossed the Atlantic for a month's 

 grouse-shooting in Teesdale — a suiScient testi- 

 mony to the value of grouse moors as a national 

 asset. 



Though steeplechasing is still vigorous, flat- 

 racing is extinct in Durham, and how far this 

 is a matter for congratulation or the reverse 

 must be left to the reader's personal feelings. 

 One point, however, is certain ; the abolition of 

 racing has had no deterrent effect on its con- 

 comitant evil of betting. 



Finally, while the growth of the taste for 

 healthy field sports is undoubtedly a matter for 

 congratulation, a less optimistic view must be 

 taken of the present condition of games and 

 pastimes. It is but too evident that our great 

 national sports of cricket and football are fast 

 degenerating into mere exhibitions of skill by 

 combinations of highly paid professionals. There 

 is scarcely a town or a colliery village in Dur- 

 ham which does not maintain a football club ; 

 but while its supporters will flock to line the 

 arena and bawl encouragement or disapproval, 

 few of them ever actively participate in the 

 game. Nor, comparatively slight as is its hold 

 on popular affection in Durham, can cricket be 

 said to be in any better plight. 



" Wemmergill is of course in Yorkshire. 



387 



