CHAPTER VIII. 



THE HAMBLETON HOUNDS. 



In his deposition to the evidence collated for the Hurworth 

 and Bilsdale Hunts trial, regarding the rights of a certain 

 portion of territory near Silton, James Ainsley, Kirby 

 Sigston, said he was born at Spout House, in Bilsdale, in 

 1844. " I remember," he continues, " when a boy, that the 

 Bilsdale Hounds hunted the fox one day in the week and the 

 hare the other. When a tale got to the late Lord Feversham 

 that the huntsman (Bell) had sold a hare, he ordered hounds 

 to be put off at once, and there were no hounds in Bilsdale 

 as long as the late Lord Feversham lived, but when he died 

 in 1867, and was succeeded by the present Earl, who was 

 then Master of the Bedale, a petition was taken to him asking 

 him if he would grant the Bilsdale Hounds to be restored 

 again, and he consented, and in 1868 he gave us five couples 

 of hounds from the Bedale. We formed a committee, and 

 I lent the huntsman my horse to go for them. We sub- 

 scribed as much money as paid the licences for the hounds, 

 which were trencher fed. I hunted with them the first day 

 they ever ran, and have hunted with them up to the present 

 time (1898), and was one of the committee until I left my 

 farm in Bilsdale in 1882." 



But what became of hounds which were in the dale at 

 that time ? I am told George Bell sold them to Squire 

 Bell, of Thirsk Hall, who at the very time was forming a pack 

 of harriers to hunt on the Hambleton Hills. I have made 

 inquiries from several sources regarding these harriers, and 

 find Mr. E. D. Swarbreck, of Bedale, gives the most interesting 

 and accurate data. He kindly replies thus to my queries : — 



The late F. Bell's hounds were called the Hambleton hounds. 

 Mr. Bell first got several couples of harriers, but where from I do not 

 remember. They arrived in April, 1853, and were kennelled in Norby, 

 a part of Thirsk. The following year Mr. Bell converted the harriers 



