134 Reminiscences of a 



occupied about two hours and ten minutes, but we were 

 running over four hours altogether, with nothing to speak 

 of in the way of a check. My little thoroughbred mare, a 

 chestnut purchased by Mr. Harvey in London, carried me 

 wonderfully from beginning to end, and was comparatively 

 fresh at the finish ; I think she was called " Hippona," or 

 something of the sort. Claxon rode " Heroine " and " Hen- 

 rietta," and was always close to hounds; in fact we stuck 

 to them from beginning to end, but the remainder of the 

 " field " were reduced to the roads. It was the little mare's 

 breeding and my light weight that served my mount so well, 

 as I never spared her, and she was as game as a bantam 

 cock! When we reached home in the darkness, some of 

 the six couple from Wynyard had arrived, and we heard 

 from Mr. Flavell (then of Sedgefield), who came up with the 

 mask and brush, that they had killed after bustling up their 

 fox in Old-acres plantations and Layton Lings for fifty 

 minutes ; this was one of the best scenting days I ever saw, 

 as hounds drove over the fallows just as well as on grass, 

 and ran on all sorts of ground. " Over Newbeggin bottoms, 

 like pigeons, they really flew," as the old song— written, I 

 believe, by Squire Sutton's father — that Joe Rutterf of Hang- 

 thorn used to sing at the earth-stoppers' dinner every year, 

 tells so well. A good sporting farmer was old Joe Rutter, 

 and a rare good puppy-walker, who knew how to bring up 

 the young 'uns ; he used to say that he allowed his puppies 

 so much meat and milk, and they had to find themselves in 

 eggs ! — for everything else they were on board wages ! His 

 receipt was an excellent one, for he generally managed to 

 run into a place at the Puppy Show, and walked such good 

 hounds as " Lincoln " and " Banker." " Lincoln " was a 



t Died in 1903. 



