60 ENGLAND S OLDEST HUNT. 



but some of the dalesf oik turned out on hearing them running, 

 and discovered the little pack at the mouth of the hole in 

 which they had marked their fox. The night had turned 

 frosty, and some of the hounds were so stiff with cold and 

 fatigue that they had to be carried home. From the line 

 taken on each occasion it seems hardly likely the pack 

 changed foxes, although the distance was no less than forty- 

 five or six miles all told. Mr. Dixon suggests that the hounds 

 changed foxes on returning to Jay's Nest the second time. 

 There is no doubt that foxes do frequently " trade " in one 

 direction from their covert, as witness the fact that the runs 

 from some wood or whin are invariably in one direction 

 during the whole of one season, and in another the next. 

 So it is possible this may be the case, though personally, 

 from what Dawson told me of the run, incredible as it may 

 seem, I am inclined to think they ran the same fox during 

 the whole of that wonderful and long day. 



George Bell, Senr., who followed Hunter Garbutt, was 

 an unassuming, quiet chap, and of him one hears but little 

 amongst " t'awd hands ov t'hoont." His son, George 

 Bell, Junr., was better known, and according to the state- 

 ment he gave in the dispute between the two hunts men- 

 tioned, he (the latter) " was born in the year 1817, and was 

 master of the Bilsdale Hunt 16 years, but really hunted them 

 for about 30 years, as I assisted Richard Tate, Leonard 

 Leng, and my father during their respective masterships. 

 I have followed the Bilsdale Hounds from childhood up to 

 the present time, and know every inch of the country". 



It was a sort of company affair between father and son, 

 though the elder Bell was nominally the huntsman. Both 

 father and son were blacksmiths at Chop Gate, and a nephew 

 of the late George — both now being dead — still carries on 

 the business, and is a member of the Hunt Committee. 

 He is Bell Medd, bearing two names prominently connected 

 with the history of hunting in the dale, and speaking of the 

 inter-marriage of two hunting families reminds me that in 

 Daleland every one is connected in some way or other with 

 every one else ; that is, those who are natives. It is, there- 



