First Whipper-in. 147 



pack when it was quite dark, and Mr. James Sawrey 

 Cookson,* who was then master of the Hurworth hounds, 

 told me afterwards that it was between ten and eleven 

 at night when the main body reached the kennels. This 

 was on a Saturday, and scent was " dead-in " just now, for 

 on the following Monday there was great sport from the 

 Castle Eden meet. The morning was very wet, and a fox 

 was found at Moralees whin, near Kelloe Banks, and we ran 

 him through Wingate plantations, where he turned to his right 

 and left Hurworth burn on the left, pointing for Whinhouse 

 belt ; that he left on the left, and turned right handed through 

 Humbleknowle plantation, past Bridge House farm, Fishburn, 

 and pointing for Old-acres ; turned to the right through Mil- 

 burn's whin, and we killed him underneath the cemetery wall 

 at Sedgefield after running nearly two hours over a fine 

 piece of country, and one of the best runs I ever saw in 

 the country. There was a lot of grief, and I was one of the 

 unfortunate ones, as I took a couple of good " bowlers," 

 one over a blind fence with a rail in it, and the other over 

 the boggy ditch just below Donnewell, where I remember 

 Captains Sowerby and Malet once got down, somewhere 

 about this time, though not on this day. This boggy ditch 

 has been an unfortunate piece of ground for me, as 1 have 

 claimed it on two or three occasions, and seen many on 

 their backs in the rotten bottom, though, as a rule, I knew 

 my ground pretty well ; but here you must go in or over, 

 or stop there, which wasn't exactly my style. We were 

 having wonderful sport about this time, as we fell in with a 

 first-rate fifty-five minutes from Five Houses, near Trimdon, 

 on the following Monday ; and on the following Wednesday, 

 November 19th, 1879, had a memorable day from Chilton 



* Mr. James Sawrey Cookson, the noted blood-stock breeder, died November 2nd, 1888. 



