-v* **>*v^t^ 



CHAPTER I. 



FOREWORD. 



Yorkshire lays claim to have been the birthplace of the 

 first recognised pack of foxhounds and to the first pack of 

 harriers. With the latter — the Penistone pack — we are not 

 concerned in writing the history of " England's Oldest 

 Hunt," but rather with the Bilsdale, Farndale, and Sinning- 

 ton countries in the North Riding, where the first hounds 

 were kept solely for the purpose of hunting Reynard, the fox. 

 To review the history of any pack of hounds of standing 

 essentially takes us back to people and manners, to customs, 

 strange beliefs, and occurrences of long ago. We are lead 

 into many side issues, all of intense interest and all having 

 a direct bearing upon the main subject. 



The fact of the matter is that a pack of hounds which has 

 been extant for a century or more seems as it were, to have 

 been the hub of the circle of the history of the particular 

 portion of the country in which its operations are directed. 

 Thus in collecting the information for the story of England's 

 Oldest Hunt, I have found myself one day in the gay court 

 of Charles II., another poring over the diary of some old 

 Yorkshire squire, a third listening to wonderful tales of 

 witchcraft or some other page of County lore and legend, 

 which is nowhere more profuse or more interesting than in 

 the dales and lowlands in which the fox was first hunted in 

 Yorkshire. The fact is, that a century ago — and still 

 earlier — the lord, the squire, and the yeomen, made the 



