184 CLEVELAND AND ESKDALE. 



In the hunting field he did not make a great 

 mark, and we have heard men say that he was a 

 very bad horse in the field. We think it would 

 be more accurate, as well as fairer, to say that he 

 never had the chance of making a reputation in 

 the huntinof field. Showincf was then at the 

 height of its popularity ; at almost every little 

 village ten pound prize could be raised for the 

 best hunter, and shows were more in favour with 

 horse owners than they had ever been before, and 

 more than they have ever been since. It was 

 not likely then that anyone who owned a horse 

 so palpably at the top of the tree as a show horse 

 as Joe Bennett would run much risk of laming 

 him, or wearing his legs, or getting those trade 

 marks which, however honorable they may be, 

 interfere greatly with a horse's chance in the show 

 ring. 



Mr. Brunton is the oldest member of the 

 Cleveland Hunt resident within the district, and 

 although he does not hunt so much as he did, 

 still "' his heart is as keen as when youth was 

 still green," and he is pretty sure to be there or 

 thereabouts when he does go. It is only a season 

 or two since that the hounds distanced the whole 

 of the field save Mr. Pease and old ' Bob,' as he 

 delights to be called. They had found a fox at 

 Bethell Slack, and ran at a kilHng pace over those 

 trjdng moors betw^een Guisbrough and Ingleby, 

 finishing at Ingleby Incline at darkening. The 



