EVOLUTION OF THE PACK. 117 



impatient behind him. At last, when he did open it, he 

 pulled it to again, and galloped on to the next gate, where 

 he repeated the comedy. By this time hounds had got settled 

 down on the line, and were a good distance ahead. This was 

 just what Nicholas wanted, and a rattling run, which would 

 otherwise have been spoiled at the outset, followed. 



Mr. William Scarth, Carlton-in-Cleveland, tells me of a 

 great day the Bilsdale had during the mastership of Nicholas 

 Spink, who was at this time living at Faceby. A bagged 

 fox was to be turned down at Potto, and thither the narrator, 

 a well-known yeoman farmer, the name of whose forbears is so 

 intimately connected with the Cleveland Hounds, went. 

 The bagman did not run far, however, and as Mr. Scarth 

 had been riding the same horse with the Cleveland Hounds 

 on the previous day, he did not accompany Nicholas and his 

 hounds to Carlton Banks, whither they went to draw. 

 On arriving home, his father was just about to go out shooting 

 on an adjoining farm, the shooting of which he had taken, 

 and asked the then youthful William to follow "him. After 

 " doing up " his horse and having some dinner, Mr. Scarth 

 got his gun and followed his father. When opposite the 

 point where Faceby Manor Lodge now stands, he heard 

 hounds tongueing in the distance, and stopped to listen. 

 Yes ! he was not mistaken, the pack were yon side of Whorl 

 Hill running full cry. Whilst he was listening, a fox which 

 had evidently been run, though not hard pressed, came 

 into the same field, and not seeing him continued on its 

 way. Putting two and two quickly together, dispite the 

 gun and dispite the good dinner he had had, Mr. Scarth 

 set off to run as hard as he could for home. He could not 

 speak when he arrived, but handing his gun to his sister, he 

 seized a saddle and bridle from the saddle-room, in a trice 

 had it on his horse, and away he went after hounds, which 

 had just passed through the field opposite. He was soon up 

 to them and away they went by Skutterskelfe and over the 

 River Leven. Alone with hounds Mr. Scarth attempted to 

 cross the water where there was no ford, and on the far side 

 his horse stuck in a sand-bed and could not move. A 



