in the Seventies and Eighties. 95 



W, Briggs, Sowerby, Ord, Matthews, Straker, Scurfield, 

 W. Forster, Park, Col. C. J. Reed,* Fox, Walton, R. C. 

 Denton, Page- Page, and a host of others. 



It was about this time that there was a regular steeple- 

 chase from Camp whin by the Glebe whin, over the Raisby 

 Hill railway, ending with a kill in the open at Quarrington Hill. 

 Sir WilUam Eden has often told me, that though this gallop 

 was over a bad piece of country it was about the fastest 

 thing during his mastership. During the course of the run 

 a big fence flanked with several strands of signal wire rope 

 on a railway was encountered ; this though not \ery en- 

 couraging at the start, Sir William and Mrs. Ord successfully 

 negotiated ; Sheppard, who followed, came a fearful " purler " 

 over it, and this practically stopped the rest of the field ; 

 the leaders had to top more wire-rope and a stiff gate to 

 keep on terms with the hounds, but were rewarded by 

 seeing them bowl over their fox in the open — a satisfactory 

 termination to what must have been a " perilous ride " — as 

 it was several minutes before the hunt servants or any one 

 else "got the country," and came up to them. 



Although the early months of 1889 provided no sport 

 worthy of comparison with that of the November and 

 December previous, still there were some useful days, and 

 the season of 1888-9 may be reckoned on the whole as 

 a good one, though not in the first-class. 



It was at the end of this season that John Bevans 

 terminated his long connection with the South Durham 

 \ Hunt, the post vacated by him being filled by Charles 



Smith from the Oakley. 



John, or as he was always called "Jack," Bevans 



• A keen foxhunter of the old school, who loved hunting for hunting's sake. He was fond of 

 telling a good story of how when hounds checked during a run, on a very wet day, at the 

 low end of Catkill lane, which was a veritable bog and quagmire, he observed a yokel 

 poking about in the bottomless mud with a stick. "Have you lost something, my man," 

 he said, — " Lost summat ! " said the disconsolate moke owner, " ar hae that ! A'rs seek- 

 ing for a cuddy and a sack o' flour ! " 



