SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



OTTER-HUNTING 



It is impossible to say when a pack of hounds 

 solely used for hunting otters was first kept in 

 Durham, but probably the first person to do so 

 was Mr. John Gallon, a native of St. Helens, 

 near Bishop Auckland, who latterly resided at 

 Ponteland. Unfortunately but little informa- 

 tion can be gleaned about these hounds, but they 

 are known to have existed for many years prior 

 to 1873, when Mr. Gallon was most unfortu- 

 nately drowned when hunting a river in Ayr- 

 shire.^ On his death the pack was purchased 

 by Major Browne of Callaly Castle, Northum- 

 berland, who, in conjunction with Mr. Fenwick 

 of Sandhoe, hunted Durham and Northumber- 

 land until 1877. In this year Mr. T. L. Wil- 

 kinson of Neasham Abbey, near Darlington — 

 the representative of the family which had 

 founded the Hurworth Foxhounds nearly a cen- 

 tury earlier — came forward and purchased seven 

 and a half couple of pure-bred otter-hounds from 

 Mr. Traherne, which he supplemented with a 

 few other hounds that he was able to pick up in 

 his own neighbourhood. In the next five years 

 Mr. Wilkinson showed most excellent sport in 

 North Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumber- 

 land, taking no subscription, and hunting on an 

 average twenty-four days a season, which would 

 probably have been more had it not been for the 

 great distances he had to travel to get to his 

 water, otters being comparatively few and far 

 between in those days. The hounds were ken- 

 nelled at Neasham, his whippers-in being Kit 

 Hunter and George Dodds. In 1882 Mr. Wil- 

 kinson sold his pack to Mr. William Yates, who 

 then hunted the Cheshire and Lancashire streams. 

 To these Mr. Yates now added Mr. Wilkin- 

 son's country, whither he brought his hounds 

 regularly every season for a few days' hunting 

 until 1888. 



In this year Mr. Wilkinson once more started 

 a pack of otter-hounds, buying seven couple of 

 rough-haired hounds from Lord Bandon. With 

 his second pack, which was a subscription one, 

 Mr. Wilkinson showed marvellous sport, almost 

 his best season being in 1889, when, with what 

 was practically a strange pack, he hunted thirty- 

 one days and killed fifteen otters. His average 

 for the eleven years that he kept this pack was 

 thirty days' hunting per season and twelve otters 



' It is, of course, understood that neither in Dur- 

 ham nor any other part of England, does a p.ick of 

 otter hounds confine its operations to a single 

 county. 



killed, his best season being in 1896, when he 

 brought sixteen otters to hand in 36 days. His 

 whippers-in were Kit Hunter and Robert Hall, 

 the latter of whom is now kennel-huntsman to 

 the Northern Counties otter-hounds, and, as 

 before, hounds were kennelled at Neasham. 



Mr. Wilkinson's ' country ' may be said to 

 have stretched from Ouse to Tweed, and his 

 best sport was obtained on the latter ; but he 

 would go anywhere, and travel any distance, on 

 the chance of finding an otter. His wonderful 

 pedestrian powers enabled him to draw a very 

 large extent of water in the course of a day's 

 hunting. In the writer's opinion he was the 

 best heel-and-toe walker he ever saw, getting 

 over the ground without apparent effort at a 

 pace that kept his field at a jog-trot. 



Mr. Wilkinson's last season was in 1899, and 

 he died early in 1900, when his pack of twenty- 

 one and a half couple of hounds — of which three 

 couple were foxhounds — was broken up and 

 sold. There was keen competition for them 

 among the various packs of otter- hounds in the 

 kingdom. A few of them even found their way 

 to Italy, a country one does not usually associate 

 with such a sport as otter-hunting. 



A very good portrait of Mr. Wilkinson (and 

 of many of his hounds and habitual followers) is 

 to be seen in the well-known picture ' Gone to 

 Ground,' an engraving of which was subscribed 

 for and presented to him by the members of his 

 hunt. The original picture, which was of enor- 

 mous size — some 14 ft. square — represented an 

 actual incident on the Till at Fowberry, and was 

 the work of two Alnwick artists, one of whom 

 painted the portraits, and the other the back- 

 ground and hounds. It is owing presumably to 

 its unwieldly proportions that this picture has, 

 we believe, found a most unsuitable resting-place 

 in the lobby of a Newcastle theatre ! For the 

 first three seasons after Mr. Wilkinson's death 

 his country was hunted by invitation by various 

 packs of otter-hounds, including such distant 

 establishments as the Culmstock from Devon 

 and Mr. Courtenay Tracy's from Hampshire. 

 In 1903, however, a subscription pack, chiefly 

 drawn from the Culmstock kennels, was started 

 under the title of the ' Northern Counties 

 Otter Hounds,' and now hunts Northumberland, 

 Durham, and the North Riding of Yorkshire, as 

 far south as the River Ure. The kennels are at 

 Loansdean, near Morpeth, and the present master 

 is Mr. F. P. Barnett. 



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