50 FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE 



The sea forms its eastern boundary, and the patches 

 of heather when wet carry a tremendous scent. 

 On the moors there is ling and clumps of trees, a 

 wide tract of country which is crossed when running 

 between the coverts which lie on the borders. In 

 the old days, it was customary to have a couple 

 of days' sport by invitation in Captain Johnstone's 

 country, which adjoined, and these were great 

 occasions for which an extra horse was hired for the 

 huntsman. Tommy Harrison related with gusto an 

 occasion when mounted on the red roan mare from 

 Scarborough, he leapt side by side with Captain John- 

 stone tin they came to a stiff gate. "Mr Tindah, 

 the master, said, ' You'll have to be somewhere. 

 Tommy,' and I replied, ' I'm for over the gate, 

 master ! ' Then he said, ' Make way for Tommy,' 

 and the mare cleared it like a bird. In those days we 

 had great hunts. I remember hounds finding near 

 Hackness and running across the moors in the dark 

 like mad. We had a letter next day to say they 

 killed at Pickering, it being too dark to ride to them 

 over a boggy district, and besides, no horse could 

 live the pace they went ! " 



The Stainton Dale are now kennelled at Scalby, 

 Mr Sam Lockwood being the master, and last 

 season, 1910-11, they hunted sixty days, six of which 

 were blank. Starting on the 12th of September 

 they finished on April 4th, killing seven and a half 

 brace of foxes and eight badgers, while it would 

 be hard to say how many they ran to ground in the 

 cliffs and rocks. 



The following sporting rhyme of a great hunt seen 

 with these hounds, February 15, 181 1, just a hundred 

 years ago, was lent me by the hon. secretary of the 

 hunt, Mr H. Huggan of Scalby. The verses were 

 composed and sung by John Jillson, farmer of 



