A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



In October, 1 87 1, a hound called Carver was 

 found to be mad. Four hounds which Carver 

 was known to have bitten were at once destroyed, 

 and it was hoped that the worst was over, but other 

 hounds manifested symptoms of rabies proper, 

 the epidemic showed no signs of abatement, and 

 at a meeting of the subscribers to the hunt, 

 held at Durham on 17 November, it was reluc- 

 tantly decided to sacrifice the entire pack of 

 forty-one couples/" 



Such a catastrophe as this, coming too at such 

 a season of the year, might well have daunted 

 most masters of hounds ; but Messrs. Henderson 

 and Harvey at once set to work to get together 

 a new pack, and thanks to the sympathy awakened 

 in the hunting-world by the calamity that had 

 overtaken the Durham Hounds, they actually 

 succeeded in taking the field again in five weeks, 

 and meeting at Aldin Grange in their northern 

 territory on New Year's Day of 1872, blooded 

 their new pack by killing a leash of foxes ! ^' 



From 1872 the Durham County Hounds 

 were divided into two distinct packs, the South 

 Durham, with Mr. Harvey as master, having 

 their kennels at Sedgefield, and the newly 

 created North Durham being taken over by 

 Mr. Anthony Maynard of Newton Hall near 

 Durham. 



Mr. John Harvey was born in 1804, and 

 served his early apprenticeship to hunting with 

 the harriers of the Newcastle Corporation. Re- 

 ference has already been made to his first 

 introduction to fox-hunting in 1820, and it is 

 probable that the impression then produced on 

 him by Mr. Lambton went far to mould his 

 character for life. There were strong natural 

 points of resemblance between the two ; both 

 were men of extraordinary resolution, univer- 

 sally beloved and respected, and endowed with 

 a passionate love of hunting. In Mr. Harvey's 

 case this latter trait was the more remarkable, 

 for as a hardworking man of business — he was head 

 of a famous and long-established firm of tobacco 

 manufacturers at Newcastle-on-Tyne — he had 

 naturally many calls on his time. None the 

 less these never prevented his hunting three 

 days a week throughout the season, but at the 

 same time they probably accounted for his being 

 less of a ' hound man ' than his prototype, Ralph 

 Lambton, or indeed, most famous masters of 

 hounds. He was, however, an undeniable man 

 across country, no obstacle being too big for 

 him, and it has been left on record by his whip 



" The Sedgefield Country. It is a highly interesting 

 fact as showing how long the germs of the disease 

 had been lurking in the Durham Kennels prior to 

 its outbreak, that a draft of four couples of hounds, 

 sent the month previous to India, developed the 

 same complaint, with the same ultimate fatal result, 

 at almost the actual time when it broke out in 

 England : ibid. 



" Ibid. 



Jack Bevans, that tears ran down his face, when, 

 at the age of sixty, he turned from a fence for 

 the first time in his life.*^ 



Most remarkable, and equally characteristic, 

 is the fact that for many years of his life it was 

 his invariable custom on hunting days to hack 

 the twenty-six miles from Newcastle to Sedge- 

 field, get his hunter there, ride on to the meet, 

 hunt all day, and then hack back to Newcastle 

 at night, being frequently in the saddle for 

 twelve hours. Indeed, on the first occasion that 

 he hunted with the Lambton Hounds, they had 

 a most extraordinary run from near Blakiston to 

 Great Ayton in Cleveland, on which occasion 

 it is computed by careful map-measurement 

 that he rode as nearly as possible ninety miles ! *" 

 Even when advancing years compelled him to 

 sleep at Sedgefield the night before hunting he 

 always returned to Newcastle the same evening 

 by a late train. No doubt his exceptional power 

 of endurance in the saddle was due not only to 

 Mr. Harvey's light weight — he never rode more 

 than about 9 stone — but also to his abstemious 

 habits ; for many years he never ate anything 

 on hunting days between an early breakfast and 

 his dinner, which merely consisted of a mutton- 

 chop and a single glass of claret." 



For the first two years of Mr. Harvey's 

 mastership the huntsman was Thomas Dowdes- 

 well. He was succeeded by William Claxon 

 from the Bicester, with J. Bevans and C. Hawkes 

 as whips. Mr. Harvey continued in office for 

 fifteen years, during nine of which he had been 

 joint-master with Mr. Henderson. He resigned 

 in 1878, when he was in his seventy-fifth year. 

 It is impossible within the limits of the present 

 article to enumerate even a tithe of the first-rate 

 runs that took place during his mastership ; but 

 it is pleasant to be able to record that his last 

 season, 1877-8, was almost his best. In the 

 following year he was presented by the members 

 and friends of the South Durham Hunt with his 

 portrait by Charlton, on his favourite mare, 

 Polly, capping his hounds away from Lea Close. 

 Mr. Harvey lived to be eighty-nine, a striking 

 tribute to the health-giving qualities of fox- 

 hunting combined with an abstemious habit of 

 life. He died in 1893, regretted by all who 

 knew him, an expression which in his case 

 means much, for izvi men ever had a larger 

 circle of friends in all classes of life than 

 John Harvey. 



On his retirement, Sir William Eden of 

 Windlestone was elected master of the South 

 Durham Hounds, with a guaranteed subscrip- 

 tion of ;{^900 a year, on which he undertook to 

 hunt the country two days a week. Sir William 

 purchased the pack for £lOO, and built new 

 kennels at Rushyford within easy reach of his 

 own house. In the following year, however. 



Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



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