Mr. Matthew Wilkinson. 6i 



" Hounds had been kept a long time at Hurworth by old 

 Tommy Wilkinson, and, at his death, his brother Lozzy (a 

 contraction of L'Oiseleur, the surname of a family of some 

 note, from whom the Wilkinson family inherited, through the 

 maternal line, the estate of Coating Moor, near Heighington), 

 built a kennel upon his estate at Neasham, where the pack, 

 originally bred from the Duke of Leeds and Lord Darlington's 

 kennels, \vere principally supported by him and his brother, 

 old ' Matthew ' Wilkinson, who lived at Entercommon, The 

 latter was an extraordinary character in every way, and, from 

 the description of his hunting costume, given by 'Nimrod,' 

 quite one of the rough-and-ready order, who would have 

 abominated the modern toothpick-and-nosegay school. He 

 was a very singular old man ; a welter weight, but the most 

 indefatigable man that ever got on a horse. He hunted his 

 hounds, assisted by Tom Hopper, whose father, old Tommy, 

 another character, was the feeder. He slept in a room adjoin- 

 ing the kennels, in which there was a trap-door which opened 

 close to his head. If there was row at night, as he knew every 

 hound's voice, he would rate the quarrelsome ones by name, 

 and establish order. Mr. Wilkinson, though he could not 

 swim a yard, would jump into the Tees on an old grey mare, 

 and swim across at any point, and, on getting over, lie on his 

 back, and hold up his heels, to empty the water out of his 

 boots ; and his breeches were double the size of anybody else's. 

 He would exclaim : * Lads, ho'd my boss till I let t' watteroot 

 o' me boots.' He weighed about twenty stones, and always 

 rode good horses ; stuck at no price, and gave three hundred 

 guineas for * Stocktonian,' a strong thorough-bred horse. He 

 knew the country well, and, when hounds checked, would come 

 up and say to his field, ' Yes, gentlemen, you shall have 

 another fox, if you want him,' and his dog language and view 



