First Whipper-in. 217 



stakes; he was a really splendid hunter, and could gallop 

 and jump till everything else was silly ; for his size and 

 make he was one of the best hunters I ever saw, but, of 

 course, he was not qualified to carry more than eleven or 

 twelve stone. He, Tom Crow, was another good specimen 

 of a South Durham Hunt puppy walker; likewise his 

 neighbour, Mr. Lee of Low Raisby. We were going to 

 Kelloe one morning for cub-hunting, in Mr. Ord's mastership, 

 and were crossing one of Lee's fields where they were 

 harvesting, when the horses, catching sight of the hounds, 

 bolted on the top of the hill, threw young Lee off the 

 machine, the knives of which were broken ; at the foot of 

 the hill, on a cinder path, the boy that was riding the near 

 horse fell off, fortunately clear of the machine, with which 

 the horses jumped a clipped thorn fence into a grass 

 meadow, with a drop of several feet ; it is extraordinary 

 how the horses escaped injury, as the pole stuck in the 

 ground and was holding the reaper in the air; the horses 

 breaking themselves free, escaped without a scratch. A 

 fund was immediately started for a new machine to replace 

 the old one, and responded to on the spot, and a week or 

 two later no one was any worse for the accident. 



Talking of accidents we had several occurred to hounds 

 from various causes whilst I was with the South Durham, 

 In the first place we lost in 1874-5 a couple of hounds in a 

 culvert just below Heighington. One did get out alive, but 

 much damaged, and we had to put him down ; the other 

 one was afterwards washed out dead, the fox, undoubtedly 

 escaping by means of a smaller drain up which the hounds 

 could not get. Another time we lost two bitches in the 

 same country, owing to their getting fast in a large culvert, 

 into which they followed their fox. The following day we 



