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them. Bilsdale, it should be borne in mind, was a famous scenting 

 country before jet mining became prevalent, but the jet shale interferes 

 very much with scent, and in some parts of the country is a considerable 

 hindrance to sport. A real old-fashioned run, such as it gladdens the 

 heart3 of Bilsdale men to talk, and the intricacies of which they will 

 debate on with enthusiasm for an hour at a time, took place in 1840, 

 and George Bell declares it to have been one of the finest runs he ever 

 saw. They found in Arncliffe Wood, and ran along the banks to Ingleby 

 Park. The fox passed through the Park Wood, and pointed for Bays- 

 dale, but was headed by something and ran by Greenhow and Botton 

 Head, along the hills to Arncliffe Wood. The hounds pressed him 

 out over the top of Arncliffe by Wild Goose Nest and Slapestones, 

 where they pulled him down after a run of three hours and twenty 

 minutes, over as rough a country as can well be found in Yorkshire. 

 The distance was computed to be between twenty and thirty miles. 



It was the old man's boast that he cCuld blow such a 

 blast on the horn whilst standing on his front door step at 

 Chop Gate on a hunting morning as to draw up every hound 

 kept in the dale. This seems a remarkable statement, but 

 was born out by not a few of his confreres. There is, of 

 course, a great art in blowing a horn, and as one writer has it, 

 " H is for horn, sure those that can blow it, are born to the 

 thrick just the same as the poet." A horn does sound 

 wonderfully amongst the hills, and it is, I suppose, possible 

 that hounds on the qui vive may have heard it five or six 

 miles away. 



The subject of calling up hounds by the horn is mentioned 

 in a somewhat interesting Yorkshire trial, to test the 

 right of a Clevelander, named Christopher Rowntree, 

 to style himself as " a gentleman." This Rowntree seems to 

 have been one of the old free-and-easy sporting squirearchy, 

 who kept his pack of hounds, and the reasons set forth to 

 prove his lack of claim to the title are not a little quaint. 

 The trial took place at York before Mr. Baron Thompson, in 

 1803, and the following account appeared in an old news- 

 paper of the day : — 



At an Assize trial held at York to decide whether one Christopher 

 Rowntree, of Middleton-on-Leven, the celebrated fox-hunter, was a 

 " gentleman." The only evidence against him was that he was blind 

 of one eye, wore leather breeches, and when he came to Stokesley 



