EVOLUTION OF THE PACK. 109 



any one of the recognised ' old originals ' calling up the 

 pack by the horn at most unearthly hours of the morning 

 and hieing to the hills. It was on one of these occasions to 

 which ' Stein,' as he is always called in the dale, referred, 

 that a fox known to have been near a certain heap of thorns, 

 was soon bolted, and away hounds went. The fox again 

 went to ground, but was caught, turned down, and killed. 

 A second was accounted for the same day. I mention these 

 instances more to show the innate love of the sport and the 

 fact that though the modus operandi may not be a la mode, 

 still they managed to see some fun with these young and 

 untrained hounds lead by the redoubtable Minister. At 

 hay time the young hounds always went back again to the 

 Bedale country, and after the season referred to, Joe Mason, 

 who was the first huntsman that Lord Feversham, then the 

 Hon. W. E. Duncombe, had, said to his master, ' We maun't 

 send no more hounds into that Bilsdale country of yours 

 or they'll kill every cub we hev.' ' Oh,' said the young 

 M.F.H., ' they've been training them a bit, have they ? 

 That is only what one can expect in Bilsdale, it is their 

 breeding.' Shortly after he heard the dalesfolk were anxious 

 to re-establish their pack, so sent over Mr. McLauchlan 

 (his agent, I think) to Chop Gate to interview several farmers 

 and sportsmen (the word is not so synonymous as it was in 

 that day) to whom notices of this revival meeting had been 

 sent. They turned up en masse, and the little Buck Inn, 

 where there have been so many hearty Hunt meetings since, 

 was. filled to repletion. The exact number present at the 

 meeting itself was fifteen, exclusive of Mr. McLauchlan. 

 These hardy dalesmen represented a wide area, and quite 

 filled the little room at the Buck, for this was before it was 

 made into the comparatively swagger place it is now. The 

 meeting was unanimous in its desire for the pack to be 

 restarted, which perhaps goes without saying. The exact 

 date of this meeting I cannot give. Lord Feversham took 

 the Bedale in 1856, and had them until 1867, and, personally, 

 I should think it would be about his fourth season. At any 

 rate, he sent seven couples of hounds into the dale c ti set 



