THE FARNDALE. 171 



Egton Grange and over to Dowson Garth. Here more than once 

 hounds and quarry were in the same field together. The fox gained 

 Coomb's covert, however, and as darkness was near at hand and the 

 kennels far away, it was decided to leave the fox for another day. 



Another run I find in my diary took place on January 

 7th, 1905, and is recorded as follows : — 



" After all one must go to the hills for strong foxes and for old- 

 fashioned sport. With one of these moorland packs, the Farndale, a day 

 or so ago, the run of the season in the North took place. The fixture 

 was at Cleggerit Bank, in Bransdale, which is a narrow dale dividing 

 Farndale from Bilsdale. A fox of the right sort was found, and one of 

 the most wonderful runs, one might almost say of the century, took 

 place. I need not detail the peculiar names of moors and gullies, of 

 intakes and ravines over which this old Caesar of a fox took the equally 

 wonderful little pack ; sufficient to say that the huntsman and such of 

 the field who could live the pace rode on until darkness began to fall 

 around this lovely hill country — one of the roughest and ' trappiest ' 

 hunting countries in the north. Right down Bransdale they went at 

 the start, then up the precipitous hill, over into Bonfield Gill, which is 

 eo isolated that an early rhyme tells us that " Bonfield Gill is where the 

 Lord never was and never will." To Keear Nest, a ravine of crags and 

 boulders, hidden away on the moors in Bilsdale. Here the fox crept into 

 a hole. Although not hunting etiquette, these enthusiasts procured 

 spades and a terrier eventually bolted their fox and set him going again. 

 Never did a bolder fox make a gamer bid for liberty, and whether or not 

 he gained it is matter for speculation, for these Yorkshire moors are 

 dangerous enough in the day time without endeavouring to follow 

 hounds over them at night, therefore the huntsman was reluctantly 

 compelled to give up the chase. Music these dales sportsmen will have, 

 and they breed their hounds specially for it. For miles and miles 

 hounds could be heard running, tongueing as they went, although four 

 hours since they had first risen their fox. Yet hounds did not seem to bo 

 slackening pace. They were now two or three miles ahead still running 

 on the moors, over hill and hole, bog, and gully. Back went the 

 huntsman to the kennels without a hound, and the sportsmen took 

 their several routes homeward with yet a lingering wish to stay with 

 hounds. The pack was heard running at ten o'clock and had they 

 killed their fox or run him to ground some of the pack would have no 

 doubt have found their way back either to Dick Shaw's place or to their 

 homes in other parts of the dale. So far as I have heard, not one of the 

 working hounds landed back until the early hours of the next morning.* 



These then form the summum totum of my notes on the 

 Farndale Hunt. Jorrocks told us that " him wot does much 



♦This season (1907-8) the Blencathra ran two foxes to ground, 

 and whilst bolting the second, a third got up and ran at such a pace 



