MR. COOKSON'S FIRST MASTERSHIP AND 

 SOME OLD-TIME FOLLOWERS. 



1862— 1864. 



A successor to the late Mr. Thomas Wilkinson was found 

 in Mr. James Cookson, of Neasham Hall, who retained the 

 services of Mr. Parrington as huntsman. Mr. Cookson had 

 for some time been one of the most substantial supporters and 

 most prominent followers of the pack, he was esteemed as a 

 first-rate sportsman, a typical country gentleman of the old 

 school, and one born to master hounds. The Hurworth sports- 

 men seemed to look naturally to him to fill the vacancy caused 

 by the death of Mr. Wilkinson, and in succeeding years, when 

 ever there was any difficulty regarding the finance or control of 

 the pack, they seem to have turned to him. Speaking of him 

 and his time, a sporting writer in Baily said : 



" In 1862 Mr. James Cookson took the hounds with a subscription of 

 /900 a year, of which the Duke of Cleveland gave half. He is a quiet 

 good-natured man, and I am told a perfect wonder on the violin, and 

 runs Paganini to half-a-stone. As a breeder of bloodstock he is well 

 known, and he bred the two cracks, Dundee and Kettledrum, who made 

 such a memorable finish for the Derby in 1861. With the Hurworth at 

 this time was Capt. Temple, of Saltergill, as good a sportsman as ever lived, 

 and also another mighty fiddler. Mr. "Billy" Vaughan, of Middleton St. 

 George, and of Fairfield, where he has a breeding establishment ; Mr. 

 Tom Garbutt, of Yarm, who can gallop and holloa with any man living, 

 who always has some good weight carriers and says he will stick to the 

 Hurworth as long as he lives ; Mr. J. W. Sutton, of Elton Hall, a staunch 

 fox preserver both in this and the Durham country ; Mr. Arthur Rowe, of 

 Stockton, and Charhe Simpson, both land owners ; Mr. Taylor then lived 

 at the inn at Croft, who afterwards went to hunt with Lord Wemyss ; 

 J. Wrightson, of Darlington, a good welter-weight, to whom the Duke of 

 Cleveland occasionally gives a horse." 



