50 The Sedgefield Country 



unfortunately lost or destroyed." This is a matter of regret, 

 as we might have obtained from them a more accurate 

 account of his early hunting days, and gained a more com- 

 plete knowledge of the earlier events of the century than is 

 at present in our possession ; suffice it to say that his 

 experiences of hunting commenced at the early age of ten 

 years, when he was the proud possessor of a clever little 

 active pony, on which he followed the Newcastle Corporation 

 Harriers, which usually met in the neighbourhood of Fenham, 

 and frequently hunted a portion of country now completely 

 covered by streets. It was some few years after this that 

 he was initiated into the mysteries of fox-hunting, but the 

 old gentleman used to be fond of relating how, on New 

 Year's Day, 1820, he went to a meet of the Lambton hounds 

 at Benshaw, just for a holiday jaunt. As it happened, there 

 proved to be nothing of the holiday sort about the sport at 

 all, and the Newcastle youth was entered to fox-hunting in 

 a singularly appropriate manner. Reynard was found at 

 home in the vicinity of Low Fell, and hounds ran with a 

 burning scent to the high ground by Wreckenton, and thence 

 to Washington and the valley of the Wear. The river was 

 crossed where it is now spanned by the Victoria Bridge ; 

 and then the fox headed for the rough country by Penshaw 

 Hill; still he was kept moving, and the fast diminishing 

 field followed on to the eastward until late in the afternoon, 

 when the kill was effected a short distance from Seaham 

 Harbour. At this time only four horsemen were upon decent 

 terms with the pack, viz., Mr. Ralph Lambton, the lad 

 Harvey, Jack Winter, the first whipper-in; and Bob Hun- 

 num, the second whipper-in (and for some years previously 

 known by the name of " Mr. Ralph's great-coat," being 

 the appellation given to him by a French nobleman, who 



