214 England's oldest hunt. 



were too meagre to carry on the hunt in a satisfactory manner, 

 whilst its financial position was far from good. A meeting 

 was called to discuss matters, which culminated in Mr. 

 Coverdale, a warm supporter of the hunt, being appointed 

 Secretary. A good Secretary is essential to the well-being 

 of every pack, and it may be remembered that almost as 

 soon as John Jorrocks had arrived at Handley Cross to take 

 the mastership of his new pack he demanded that his " Sec." 

 should be brought to him, and, on seeing him, gave some 

 homely advice as to the duties of one in his high calling. 

 His lecture ran : — 



I doesn't want one of your fine auditin' sort of " sec," what will 

 merely run his eyes over the bills, and write his initials over the back, 

 right or wrong, but I wants a regular out-and-out working chap, that 

 will go into them hitem by hitem, and look sharp arter the pence 

 without leaving the pounds to take care of themselves. A good sec. 

 is a werry useful sort of hanimal, but a bad un's only worth hanging. 

 In the first place, you must be werry particklar about gettin' in the 

 subscriptions. That is always uppermost in a good see's mind, and 

 he should never stir out of doors without a list in his pocket, and should 

 appear at the cover side with a handful of receipts, by way of a hint 

 to what haven't paid. 



What modus operandi Mr. Coverdale adopted I know not, 

 but at any rate from his inception things began to look up. 

 He found the hunt owed the bank £50, whilst there was an 

 outstanding account of £48 for oats. This was cleared off, 

 and at the end of Mr. T. Kendall's first season as master, 

 and Mr. Coverdale's initiatory season as Secretary, there was 

 a balance in hand of 9s. — not much, certainly, but it was a 

 balance on the right side. It was entirely owing to Mr. 

 Coverdale, who is still in the flesh, that the hunt was kept 

 going, writes Mr. Parrington. 



In his first season, Mr. Kendall had a good run, which he 

 recorded on the fly leaf of a novel thus : — 



We met at Pickering, and as the hills were covered with snow and 

 the ground in some places was hard, not much sport was expected. 

 We trotted away to the far-famed Haugh Wood, where we soon un- 

 kennelled one of the right sort on the east side of the covert. We ran 

 up the covert across Middle Ridge and over the west side, and across 

 the top of Grayson's farm for Nova, and on to East Moor Plantation 

 (where he was headed), across to Cawthorn Down and on to Aislaby 



