THE FARNDALE. 159 



desired, monetary payment. He belonged to an old school, 

 yet whilst of it he had most of the virtues without the vices. 

 He had an individuality all his own — entirely out of harmony 

 with the times and manners in which he lived, he was a 

 temperate man over his cups at the table. He was a regular 

 man too in his hours. This may perhaps have followed 

 upon the fact that he was, as has been mentioned, what at 

 that period would be defined as " high larned." He had 

 widened his knowledge and conceptions by reading, and 

 seems to have carried with him an air of refinement which, 

 as well as his prowess and powers, his enthusiasm and 

 untiring tirelessness with hounds, earned for him no small 

 respect and a name which still lives. 



I have to thank the Rev. Bertram Darley , of Harthill Rectory, 

 Sheffield, for a tribute alike to the memory of Jos. Duck, 

 and to many happy days spent with him by stream and moor. 

 Mr. Darley, who is a member of a family well-known in North 

 Yorkshire, was intimately associated with the veteran from 

 boyhood, and early admiration grew into mature affection. 

 The character sketch is all the more welcome because the 

 recollections are happy — it may be in a measure sacred — 

 ones ; of daj^s and events, of scenes and incidents, of joys 

 and disappointments, which are gone, and of which the main 

 actor, full of years, has gone, too. After reading of these 

 journeys, one feels to have known Duck, and to be able to 

 picture him with his youthful charges by the side of the 

 stream, or working up their excitement by his cheery holloa 

 as he urged on his hounds. Here is Mr. Darley's word picture : 

 " Joe Duck had a long and close connection with ' t' Darlas ' of 

 Spaunton Moor and Aldby Park. Jt began a good while before my 

 own birth in 1850 — probably in the early forties. My father (Mr. H. B., 

 Darley) used to go with his family to Spaunton Lodge every August 

 for grouse shooting, and so soon as I was old enough to know anything 

 I knew of ' Old Duck ' (as we always called him) as the Mentor of the 

 family, both girls and boys, in the art of trout fishing. We knew him 

 too, of course, as a fox-hunter, and sometimes joined him in that sport, 

 but the family had generally all returned to Aldby Park by the end 

 of September, so we did not have many opportunities of hunting. 

 Still we had some good days with him and the Farndale Hounds, and 

 for many years I possessed the mask of a fox which I saw killed by him 



