MR. H. W. SELBY LOWNDES AS M.F.H. 127 



Lowndes and Mr. William Scarth, a fellow-parishioner. 

 Both were known to be hard men over a country, 

 both valued his reputation as such. Hounds went 

 away at a good pace with a screaming scent, and the 

 Master of the Bilsdale and the well-known yeoman, 

 whose forbears have ever been so intimately connected with 

 hunting in the North, went away at the head of the van. 

 Side by side they rode, taking their fences together, and each 

 endeavouring to pass the other. It was for all the world 

 like a point-to-point race, and no doubt both men more or 

 less regarded it as such, for on they raced, never noticing 

 that hounds had suddenly swerved round, and were running 

 in a totally different direction. A large percentage of the 

 field followed them — as they so often do follow a scarlet 

 coat looming in the distance — then suddenly one or the other 

 of the Carltonites looked around for hounds, and found them 

 nowhere to be seen. One by one the field came up asking 

 the same question, " Where are they ? " " Which way have 

 they gone ? " and so on. 



Mr. Lowndes would never be out- jumped either ; if one 

 man was going to take a nasty obstacle he would be over it too. 

 They will show you in Bilsdale tremendous places he went 

 over, and few were the stone-walls which turned him. Of 

 course, this all shows nerve and a determination to be with 

 hounds, but the good horseman considers rather how much 

 he can save his horse than how much he can take out of it* 

 Mr. Lowndes, as I have said, came to Bilsdale and proved 

 himself a good sportsman, and a fellow after their own hearts. 

 He had much to learn, though I believe he had hunted 

 harriers since his boyhood's days, and nothing teaches 

 patience, nothing provides so much hound work as hunting 

 " the timid hare." 



In Bill Nichol, who had been with the Cleveland, he had 

 a useful whip, and a man who helped him much in kennel 

 management after his arrival. The new M.F.H. soon fell 

 out of love with Bilsdale hound blood, and commenced 

 shooting and exporting, keeping one or two bitches which 



