CHAPTER II. 



LORD DARLINGTON'S ERA. 



S will be seen from the Wilkinsons' diaries, which 

 follow, the Hurworth Hounds were, at the time of 

 the great run mentioned in the preceding chapter, 

 virtually harriers, and, with the exception of an 

 occasional chance run after a fox on their part, the 

 nobler quarry was left to Lord Darlington, whose name is 

 inseparable from the early history of hunting in general and in 

 this part of the world in particular. For over 150 years fox- 

 hounds were kept at Raby Castle. x\bout the year 1791, the 

 Earl of Darlington, who became Duke of Cleveland in 1832, 

 hunted a tremendous area of country, embracing practically the 

 whole of the County of Durham and nearly half of Yorkshire, 

 including the now Badsworth country. In the early diaries of 

 the old Raby Hunts one finds records of them meeting in 

 various parts of Durham, afterwards ceded to the famous Mr. 

 Ralph Lambton, and also of them having sport from Newsham 

 Banks, Dinsdale Woods, and Neasham (for long the head- 

 quarters of the Hurworth and the home of the Wilkinsons). 

 He also hunted what are now the Bedale and Zetland coun- 

 tries, and even the now York and Ainsty territory was not free 

 from his sporting incursions. 



There appeared in Baity, for April, 1872, a very interesting 

 article on the Old Raby Hunt, which mentions so many 

 Nimrods afterwards connected with early sport in the North, 

 and particularly with the Hurworth, that I make no apology for 



