CHAPTER I. 



' No keener hunter after glory breathes." 



A COMPLETE HISTORY of fox-hunting in the County 

 of Durham, from the time that the celebrated Ralph 

 Lambton* first assumed the role of M.F.H. in the Sedgefield 

 country one hundred years ago, until the division of the 

 district hunted by the Durham County hounds into North 

 and South, in 1872, with Mr. Anthony Lax Maynard at the 

 head of affairs in the North and Mr. John Harvey master in 

 the South, would doubtless afford pleasant reading to many 

 hunting men, particularly to those of the old school. The books 

 and records relating to much that occurred during the earlier 

 part of the century, are in the possession of the writer, 



• Mr. Ralph John Lambton had, previous to 1804, hunted a portion of the Raby country. In 

 1793, Mr. W H. Lambton, brother of Mr. Ralph and father of the first Earl of Durham, 

 wrote to a great-uncle of Mr. Marshall Fowler, alluded to later on, asking that gentleman 

 to assist him and his brother in establishing a pack of hounds, which was done in the 

 above year. A portion of the Raby country is omitted from the transactions of the Raby 

 Hunt in 1793, and it is fair to presume that Lord Darlington had given that portion, so 

 omitted, to Mr. Lambton, as was afterwards done with the Sedgefield country in 1804. 



