NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 21 



The next morning the carnage of Mr. Surtees, of Hamsterley Hall, 

 arrived in Newcastle, for the purpose of conveying me thither — distant 

 about ten miles, but as Mr. Surtees, Junr. accompanied it, and the 

 day was a very fine one, he proposed that we should ride to Hamsterley 

 in preference to going in the carriage, which I readily agreed to, 

 particularly as he gave me to understand that he should take me through 

 a beautiful country, by a new road which was then making in the direc- 

 tion of his father's house. About three o'clock then we were under 

 ^veigh — he on a hack which his servant had ridden after the car- 

 riage, and myself on a Newcastle hack, that was deserving of a better 

 fate ; and after sauntering at our ease through one of the most pictures- 

 que, well-wooded, and well-watered valleys I ever beheld in my life, 

 passing Ax well-park, the seat of Sir Thomas Clavering, Bart., and Gibside, 

 one of the seats of Mr. Bowes, of sporting celebrity, and one of the 

 representatives of the county of Durham, we arrived at Hamsterley 

 just in the nick of time, that is to say, at the first clap of the dressing- 

 bell. 



Who and what Mr. Surtees of Hamsterley is, I shall have great 

 pleasure in once more informing my numerous readers; and having 

 had occular demonstration of his domicile, T shall avoid a mistake which 

 I fell into in my Yorkshire Tour, of confounding it with that of his late 

 accomplished relation, Mr. Surtees of Mainsforth-hall near Sedgefield, 

 author of the *' History of Durham,'* considered a standard work. 

 Now the 'Squire of Hamsterley is not, to my knowledge, an author, but 

 ''every inch of him" a sportsman ; yet who more proper than him- 

 self to write on the antiquities of any country ?— he being a most reli- 

 gious observer of the remains of ancient times, in the unbounded hos- 

 pitality of his house and table ;— one who it might be imagined had 



