222 CAPT. Johnstone's hounds and country. 



and Wm. Holtby from the Holderness will be 

 there, and joined to the hard-riding natives 

 they make up a field which may well fill the 

 mind of a huntsman with apprehension. All 

 he can do is to long for a scent, for should that 

 necessary article be wanting, at any rate till the 

 field gets fairly settled down, he will have a few 

 anxious minutes. The rush for a start when a 

 fox goes away from Barstow's Whin is almost 

 like a start for a steeplechase. And the big 

 drains, and rough untrimmed fences are negocia- 

 ted with a recklessness as regards consequences, 

 which seems to be contagious. The drains are 

 " bumpers," " as wide as a church door and as 

 deep as a grave," and many a good hunter has 

 come to an untimely end in endeavouring to 

 clear them. Then there are those two formidable 

 streams, the Costa and the Syme, to negociate, 

 and the famous Thornton Brook, which has only 

 been jumped once since the 'Squire' jumped it 

 some sixty years ago.* So if a man Avants hard 

 riding, big jumping, and plenty of it, let him go 

 to Howe Bridge and try conclusions with those 

 hard-riding fellows, " rum ones to follow and bad 

 ones to beat," who follow Captain Johnstone's 

 hounds in friendly rivalry, and if, given a 

 scent, and that he is well mounted, he is not 



* This was in the spring of 1888, when Mr. Taylor, of Scar- 

 borough, jumped it ou a thoroughbred horse he had just bought 

 from Mr. John Lett, and completely pounded his field. 



