First Whipper-in. 153 



to unbutton his collar ; but before I knew where I was he 

 dropped over the ridge of the hill, and went to ground 

 in the rocks at Witch Hills, thus beating us ; a bit of a 

 sell, too, for me, after being so confident about getting hold 

 of him. "Cardinal" hit some rails smartish just before this, 

 but perhaps I didn't ride him fast enough at them. Old 

 Mr. Bowser, a rare old sportsman of the old school, had a 

 pack of harriers at Bishop Auckland ; he was desperately 

 keen on hunting, and seldom missed a meet of Lord Zetland's 

 or the South Durham. A good old sportsman of the olden 

 kind, who often helped us to find a fox, by telling us where 

 he had seen an outlyer when hunting his harriers, and his 

 judgment could be relied upon. 



A very good gallop was that which we had on February 

 18th, 1880, when we met at Park Head, but unfortunately 

 drew Belburn wood and Merrington Rush blank ; worked 

 our way to Coldsides, which harboured a brace, but there 

 wasn't enough scent to cover a threepenny bit, so we could 

 do nothing but spend a bit of time ferreting or ratting, as 

 I call it, about the place. At Gipsy whin we chopped a 

 vixen, asleep, and then went on to Thrislington Banks, 

 where Mr. Ord viewed a fox stealing away up the bank on 

 the opposite side of the railway, which is very awkward to 

 cross just here ; however, we managed to get over some- 

 how and laid hounds on, when we found there was a deal 

 more smell in the air than in the morning, and the pack 

 settling nicely down, at once went straight away with their 

 fox, leaving Ferryhill village on the left, and pointing for 

 Croxdale, in the North Durham country ; bearing further to 

 the right, they raced into an old dog fox on Hett moors in 

 the evening ; it was dusk when they killed him, after running 

 twenty-eight minutes over a fine line of country, and I ana 



