208 England's oldest hunt. 



a minit, an' Ah'll tell tha all aboot it. Ho'd on noo ! Ah've been huntin' 

 wi' Jack Parker ; thoo nivver heeard owt like what Ah's going to tell 

 tha ; noa, niver i' thee life. Ah'd just got to t' top of ' Ozzy Kirk " 

 (Oswaldkirk) bank when Jack Parker's hounds, i' full cry after a fox, 

 were coming over. I turned frightened, and gat into an awd empty 

 barrel that somebody had left. T'hounds came louping round, and 

 cocked their legs again t' barrel. Twea on 'em gat their starns through 

 t' bung hole. I collared hod, stuck my feet against yah side and my 

 back agin t' other, and down t' bank we went. I shouted ' Tally-ho, 

 and waived me hat ower yah side, and t' dogs gave out music like mad 

 things. At last, t' awd barrel struck ageean a stone, an' flew ti bits, 

 an' Ah were left on t' road laid on t' rig o' my back. Just at that minit 

 Jack Parker gallops up, and when he saw me he laughed whal Ah 

 thowt he'd 'a'e brussen hisself. All t' hossmen, said Jack, thowt the 

 devil in a new shap had got wi' t' hounds when he saw t' black 

 thing bouncing down t' bank. ' It's a wonder t' hounds didn't worry 

 tha alang wi't fox,' said Jack. And, begow, t' dogs had killed t' fox, 

 and Ah was t' fost up. Jack Parker blooded me, and gave me t' brush 

 for thoo,^Bess. So stick it i' thee bustle, and thou'll be a vixen." 



The following Jack Parker story comes from the same 

 source : — 



" At one time Nanny Parker, Miss Jenny Parker, and Jack amongst 

 'em, had a monkey. As to how Jacco got to Kirby I know not. Cen- 

 turies ago, the woods all around were infested with wild animals, some 

 of whose bones have bleached for ages in the historical Kirkdale Cave, 

 but one never heard of a live monkey there. Possibly Jack bought it 

 from a travelling menagerie ; at any rate, it was prior to the period 

 when railway engines belched forth smoke over the fruit-laden gardens 

 of Kirby. In addition to the monkey, there was at the kennels a 

 condemned fox, with whom Jacco became friendly, as he already was 

 with hounds. Report said that both Nanny and her daughter were 

 anxious to save that fox, whereby hangs a tale. This fox had been 

 caught fowling, and it was arranged that he should pay the penalty, 

 and be turned down on Appleton Common. All Kirbymoorside went 

 hunting that day. The school was empty, the halt, the lame, and old 

 as well as young found all roads led to Appleton Common. Jack Parker 

 at last arrived, his red coat and ruddy cheeks, together with a merry 

 twinkle in his eye, standing out conspicuously in the animated scene. 

 Just over Catter Bridge to the right, and divided from the Common 

 by a stone wall, which runs from the Manor House gate to the beck, 

 is a paddock, and here the bagman was to be set free to make a bid 

 for liberty. Look ! there's a man climbing the wall with a bag. Intense 

 silence and expectation reigns supreme. Jack Parker falls to the rear 

 of the paddock with his pack, so that the fox shall get clear away ere 

 he cheers on the hounds to the holloas which always attended such an 



