92 The Sedgefield Country 



fit for a dog to be out in, hounds returning to the kennels 

 early. The Holdforth Bar day, on November 5th, which 

 opened the regular hunting season, was one which will not 

 be easily forgotten by those who were fortunate enough to 

 taste of its sweets, and His Excellency the Marquis of 

 Londonderry, who had been enjoying a day or two's hunting 

 with these hounds whilst visiting his Wynyard seat for a 

 brief period of rest after his heavy responsibilities in Ireland, 

 will carry back with him a vivid recollection of the hand- 

 some bitch pack, which was again out, flying over the sound 

 grass pastures that lie to the east and north of Sedge- 

 field, and handling their fox at Bishop Middleham village, 

 after as pretty a thirty minutes as the imagination of the 

 most ardent votary of the sport could portray. The diary 

 of the day's proceedings reads :— Met at Holdforth Bar, 

 drew Sprucely and Hardwick Lake bottoms blank ; found in 

 the old covert, and, favoured with a holding scent, made our 

 way at a good pace past the Tilery wood, Black plantation, 

 leaving Sedgefield station on the right, our fox pointing for 

 Morden. Finding hounds unpleasantly near he bore to the 

 left, and we got right up to him at Fir-tree Hill plantation, 

 whence we had a scurry to the Brakes, running into him 

 near Mr. C. Robinson's house, after a fast twenty-five 

 minutes, during which much hard riding was displayed, and 

 one or two good men " took a toss." Tried one or two 

 small plantations and Bradbury gorse, where a cub had un- 

 fortunately been chopped in covert a short time before, 

 without response, and then trotted off to Milburn's whin, 

 which held a leash — chopped one, bad luck to it, just as he 

 broke, and got away on another's brush, running at a 

 tremendous pace parallel with the Sedgefield road for a mile, 

 and then in a north-westerly direction, crossed the Durham 



