120 BILSDALE AND SINNINGTON. 



office. He was a born huntsman, and from his 

 first season he showed excellent sport. 



There was not a sufficiency of foxes in the 

 country to admit of it being hunted two days a 

 week, so they hunted fox and hare alternately, 

 hunting the hares on foot, but following the 

 nobler quarry on horseback. The hares they 

 killed were not broken up, but were given to the 

 farmers who kept a hound. And a good few 

 hares they did kill, if we are to judge from the 

 lecord of one day, when they owned to having 

 killed nine. Lively, a bitch descended from the 

 Duke of Buckingham's blood, was especially 

 smart amongst the hares, and when they ran into 

 view would race out of the pack and course her 

 hare like a greyhound. The strength of the pack 

 in George Bell's time was about ten couples, and 

 it says something for their perseverance and the 

 skilful manner in which they were handled, that 

 they killed on an average from ten to fifteen 

 brace of foxes in a season during the thirty years 

 that Bell hunted them. Bilsdale, it should be 

 borne in mind, was a famous scenting country 

 before jet mining became so prevalent, but the 

 jet shale interferes very much with scent, and in 

 some parts of the country is a considerable 

 hindrance to sport. 



A. real old-fashioned run, such as it gladdens 

 the hearts of Bilsdale men to talk of, and the 

 intricacies of which they will debate on with 



