58 England's oldest hunt. 



So sportsmen all your glasses fill, 



And let the toast go round, 

 Five couple of hounds of high degree 



That viewed the fox to ground. 



This chase probably took place in the early years of last 

 century. Charles Harrison lived at Murton. Hunter Garbutt, 

 of Elm House, was the huntsman. John Bulman was a native 

 of Hambleton. Clark is supposed to be the author of the song, 

 and it is said he composed it the night after the run in the 

 Spout House, much to the disgust of his bed-fellow, Luke 

 Blackburn. He was a shoemaker. Peacock lived at Carr 

 Cote. Len Heseltine was one of the Hambleton trainers, 

 amongst whom the Bilsdale Hounds have always found 

 favour. In Thirsk Churchyard I find the following inscrip- 

 tion on a stone : — ■ 



"To the memory of Leonard Heseltine, of Hambleton House, 

 who departed this life May, 1812, aged 53. In the midst of life, &c." 



To a sportsman who is conversant with every inch of the 

 country, resides in it, and has often heard the run discussed, 

 I am indebted for the following extended account : — 



The meet was at Hawnby ; Hawnby Hill was drawn blank, bub 

 in Eskardale, a valley a mile long and about three miles from Hawnby, 

 hounds hit on a drag which they ran over Arden Moor to the lofty 

 crag top. In Thordale Rocks, which is the next Gill to Lofty Crag, 

 their fox was risen. Down this very steep hill he ran to Arden Hall, 

 over Cumhill, from the summit down the dale side over to Sunnybank 

 Gowerdale, another precipitous dell some 400 feet deep. On from here 

 he went to Peak Scar Gill — a rough stoney valley. Indeed, this wonderful 

 fox seems to have chosen the most tiring and roughest country possible. 

 Leaving Murton well to the right, he made for Murton Gill aiming as 

 if for Long Plain. Here he went even faster hearing hounds behind 

 him, in the direction of Weathercote, then for Cold Kirby town's 

 pasture, down Nettledale (about a mile in length) by the low end of 

 Flassendale, a long and beautifully wooded valley some 400 feet deep. 

 Here he entered the Sinnington country and went on by Mr. Worthy's 

 Stocking House Farm (Scawton) and over Scawton Howl to Seamer 

 Howl, which is now enclosed in the Earl of Feversham's deer park, 

 over Claythette Rigg in a line for Antofts, where at this time a tenant 

 named Duke Taylor, a sporting farmer, lived. Antofts was left on the 

 the left, the fox making for Waterloo over the moor. He continued 

 to bear left-handed to Tom Smith's Cross (said to be the site of a gibbet) 



