40 England's oldest hunt. 



Duncombe family purchased the Helmsley estates from the Duke's 

 executors in 1695, and followed his example in keeping up the hounds." 



Again, one finds Miss K. Duncombe writing : — 



" The Bilsdale men, once having tasted of the delights of fox-hunt- 

 nig, doubtless felt that they could not abandon them without a struggle, 

 and got together a trencher-fed pack, which hunted, and still hunts, 

 the valley of Bilsdale, as also a small strip of open country near Thirsk." 



It is most difficult to come to any accurate decision, or 

 indeed any decision at all, regarding the Farndale Hunt. 

 Not a single record seems to have been kept, and though I 

 have made journeys into the dale and to every one whom I 

 imagined could throw light upon the origin of the Hunt, 

 I have failed to procure any information even legendary 

 to help me in coming to a conclusion as to the date of the 

 formation of the pack. That Farndale — a valley more 

 isolated than Bilsdale, and almost unapproachable by 

 vehicle — was part of the Duke's country is undoubtedly 

 the case. The dale, however, has always been somewhat 

 thinly populated, the people have married and inter-married 

 till they are many of them extremely laconic, and it is 

 difficult to procure any historical fact. 



" Baily's Hunting Directory " gives the date of the 

 formation of the pack as 1835, which is incorrect. Miss 

 Duncombe studiously avoids any mention of the pack at all, 

 and the author of the " North Countree " tells us nothing- 

 regarding its inception. I am led to believe that it 

 is of a later date than the other twain, and that (1) for 

 some years the Farndale men had a few hounds and 

 joined with the Bilsdale, eventually breeding sufficient to 

 commence a pack of their own, or (2) the Bilsdale " set 

 them up " with some hounds, and they received as a gift 

 some harriers from near Kirbymoorside, and inter-bred. 

 At any rate, between the three packs which now hunt the 

 Duke's country, friendly relations have always been main- 

 tained, and they have " swopped " hounds with one another, 

 and used each other's stud-hounds from the earliest time, 

 till the Sinnington passed by an evolution, which will be 

 mentioned in due course, from the position of a trencher-fed 



