176 England's oldest hunt. 



a country of their own by mutual consent or by virtue of 

 hunting it. The Duncombes I have already mentioned 

 kept hounds when they purchased the estates from the 

 Duke's executors, and they would be the groundwork and 

 basis of the Sinnington Hunt of to-day. I should almost 

 imagine that it was regarding the Duncombe hounds the old 

 hunt song, which my father has amongst his collection, was 

 composed, insomuch as the word Sinnington is never em- 

 ployed. It is possible, even at the date of this song, that 

 the Duncombes still had a private pack, as most of the 

 squirearchy had at this period, and that the sporting lights 

 of the ocality had one, too. However this may be, it will be 

 seen that the Duncombes countenanced it, and that there 

 was no small amount of enthusiasm evinced in the sport 

 at this early period. My father says regarding the occasions 

 when the song was particularly popular : — 



The observance of the Mell Supper which still lingers in remote 

 corners of our Yorkshire dales, is but an unrecognisable ghost of what 

 it once was. It has now degenerated into a supper pure and simple, 

 given to the few harvesting hands about the farm. The Mell doll, 

 dance, act, guisers, straw plaiting, songs and recitations are all gone, 

 forgotten, save by a few of the older folk. There was a time when the 

 round of the Mells was looked forward to and considered as much of an 

 institution as Christmas itself, but self-binders, horse-rakes, and the 

 like reduced the number of hands required for the safe ingathering of 

 the grain, to an undreamt of minimum, and so rang the death-knell 

 of the Mell supper. Why, fifty years ago, it was not an uncommon 

 thing for a farmer to employ during harvesting fifty or sixty hands, 

 now ! 



As a good example of the Cleveland dialect, perhaps 

 under editorial pressure written more " pro i>ono publico, " 

 than strictly correct as to the sound of each word as uttered 

 by our dales-folk, the following old song of the Sinnington 

 country may be taken as a fair specimen of the style given 

 at such a gathering. It having been recited as late as 1808 

 at the Mell of John Plews, of Castleton : — 

 " Come A-Hunting." 



Recited by W. Barker at John Plew's Mell, Castleton, 1808. 



Come alang, let's away, wa mun all on uz gan, 

 Its t' last day wa s' hearken ti t' sounds 



