MODERN BEAGLING 



217 



sport. Allgood hunted our little lot till his people moved from 

 Ingram to Nunwick in another part of Northumberland, and then 

 I hunted them. We had some capital hunts, and generally accounted 

 for our hare. The hill hares stood up longer before hounds than 

 south country ones, being fed on hard hill grass, and they also had 

 no heavy ploughs to tire them. 



I used to keep the beagles, about ten couple of the best, during 

 vacation, when I was Master, at my father's place, Hedgeley, in 

 Northumberland, and having secured walks for the remainder 

 of the pack, I used to take Bob Floate, the kennelman (who, I be- 

 lieve, is still with the pack), 

 north with me. Bob was 

 quite a character, and very 

 handy about the place, and 

 in the summer time was 

 quite an acquisition to our 

 village cricket XI. ; he was 

 a fast round arm bowler. 

 Bob had never been in such 

 a hilly country, and when I 

 showed him one day where 

 we were going to hunt, he 

 looked at the hills in amazement, and said, " Lor', sir, these be 

 wunnerful 'igh 'ills, these be." Sometimes my meets were a long 

 way away, as I liked, especially in the autumn, to get right away 

 among the Mils, and so clear of tillage ground ; I used to drive 

 the beagles about in a spring cart with a pig-net over the top, and 

 very often if I was staying away overnight my luggage in a bag 

 in beside them. 



One time I had arranged to go and stay a couple of nights at 

 Byrness in Eedwater (not far from the Carter Fell) with that keen 

 sportsman and popular man, Mr. Jacob Robson, Master of the Border 

 Hounds. I had to borrow a light-legged cart-horse to drive the 

 beagles, as my father's horses were engaged, and off" I started one fine 

 autumn day about the 20th of September 1888, dressed in my beagling 

 kit, my luggage and a pair of saddle-bags and the beagles |n the 



J. S. C.-E. Beagling in Northumberland. 



