iSS' Reminiscences of & 



generally rode an old dark chestnut horse called " Billy " ; 

 he had been a good horse, but was a bit troubled with 

 the slows, though Mr. Tait was always saying "Aye mon, 

 he con gollup " ; if he got a bit behind you could hear him 

 calling out " Ye fool, Billy." He got a nasty fall over 

 some timber or a gate I remember, and broke his wrist, 

 and lost a tooth or two, which made it necessary for 

 him to go to the dentist for repairs. He 's dead ; poor 

 fellow. 



Sir William, as I believe I have said before, spared no 

 expense in mounting us on tip-top cattle, and we seldom 

 came to grief, but I had a good purler one morning, off a 

 horse we used to call " Bobby Lamb." Sir William bought 

 him off a friend of Mr. Harvey's. Mr. Harvey used to be 

 fond, when he was master, of bringing a lot of friends of 

 the old school at times, to look at the hounds in the field ; 

 men from the Tynedale and Morpeth, and other Northumber- 

 land Hunts; with him used to come Mr. John Shiel (rather 

 before my time) ; Mr. Anderson, who used to take a house 

 at Sedgefield, and was out a few times in my first season 

 with the South Durham ; Mr. Briggs, uncle of Mr. William 

 Briggs, a first-class man to hounds, who is still hunting, I 

 am told, going as well and as keen as ever ; Mr. Wallace, 

 Mr. Wylam, and Mr. Fred Lamb, the wine merchant, who 

 kept the Newcastle Harriers, and used to combine a little 

 business with pleasure, when he made an incursion into the 

 South Durham country. He sold a horse to Sir William, which 

 carried me for two or three seasons. One morning, when 

 the ground was very hard, he was walking over a place, 

 when he got his foot fast in a piece of wire, which brought 

 him down, and sent me as though I had gone out of a 

 spring-gun on to my head, which, for a few minutes, made 



