154 England's oldest hunt. 



to the inn in that village, where the pads were placed in 

 glasses of liquor. This old custom is now, I fancy, peculiar 

 to the Farndale Hounds, though at one time, as those who 

 have read " The History of the Cleveland Hounds as a 

 trencher-fed pack," will remember, the oldNimrods around 

 Roxby were wont to hie to the parson or churchwardens of 

 the parish in which they ran into their fox, claim the sum — 

 usually five shillings, I believe — paid for the killing of this 

 class of " vermin," then enter the first inn and spend the 

 " head money " over a fox-flavoured bowl of liquor. All 

 this may sound somewhat barbarous, but we must bear in 



mind that we live in another age, and I am afraid, so far as 

 fox-hunting goes, a degenerate one. 



It may also be mentioned that like the Bilsdale sportsmen, 

 those in Farndale, in their hare hunting days (which ended 

 with the introduction of keepers and the laying aside of 

 his horn by Joe Duck) were wont to rescue from the hounds 

 one or two hares, and sending them on to one of the dale 

 inns ahead, draw on that way towards dusk and finish the 

 day with hare pie. These were days when sport commenced 

 as soon as daylight appeared, and the darkness having 

 ended the day in the open, the company adjourned to the 

 seductive turf fire at an inn and possibly whiled away the 

 time with song and legend till next morning, when not 

 infrequently they would have another hunt. Yet farming 

 paid then, and the yeoman was a type of manhood the like 

 of which one rarely sees now. 



Nor does this custom seem to be entirely obsolete at the 



