BILSDALE AND SINNINGTON. 115 



They hunt the whole of Bilsclale, a narrow valley 

 about twelve miles long, and which, by the way, 

 hounds seldom run the length of, but generally 

 cross ; and along Carlton Bank as far as the 

 White Horse at Hambleton. They have some 

 good low country at Upsall, near Thirsk, where 

 they join the Bedale and Hurworth countries, 

 and there is quite plenty of country for two days 

 a week if foxes were a little better taken care of. 

 The Bilsdale claims to be the oldest j^ack of 

 foxhounds in England, and, although it has ex- 

 perienced many changes, it is fairly entitled to 

 that claim. The Duke of Bucking-ham hunted 

 the dale, together with what is now the Sinnington 

 country, and the whole of Bransdale and Farn- 

 dale, and hunted fox and stag alternately. 

 Bilsdale proper in his time was all wood and 

 moor, there being little or no enclosed land in 

 the dale, and the present road was only a flagged 

 track, ' courser,' as they call it in the north of 

 Yorkshire. About two miles from Chop Gate, 

 a public-house with a blacksmith's shop and two 

 or three cottages to bear it company, is Bucking- 

 ham Stone, where tradition tells us that a fox 

 was killed at the end of a severe run of some 

 three hours duration. The Duke, and Forster 

 his huntsman, were the only two who got to the 

 end, and the Duke's horse died on the place, 

 whilst Forster's succumbed at Slapewath, about a 

 couple of miles on the homeward road. 



