A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



which he estimates to have been the most costly 

 of that day. 13 None the less Lord Darlington was 

 exceedingly methodical in all matters appertain- 

 ing to the upkeep of his hunt, keeping careful 

 account of expenditure, and being supplied with 

 a weekly report of the state of the coverts, and 

 their fences, &c. Nimrod further adds that he 

 annually paid ^340 to his own tenants for fox- 

 coverts, which seems a rather paradoxical state- 

 ment. Lord Darlington was also a man of con- 

 siderable initiative in the minor accessories of the 

 chase. He was, for instance, the inventor of 

 the modern kennel-coat, an article unknown to 

 his guest, and described by him as 'a sort of 

 white smock something like what the better 

 order of butchers wear,' which in conjunction 

 with 'a pair of calashes' enabled the master to 

 leave the kennels ' fit to walk into a drawing- 

 room.' Another of Lord Darlington's wrinkles 

 that favourably impressed Apperley was that of 

 causing his hounds to pass from the feeding-house 

 to their benches along a trough 6 in. deep in 

 broth. This caused them to lick their feet, ' and 

 the healing properties of a dog's tongue to a sore are 

 well established.' Nimrod mentions two whip- 

 pers-in and a second horseman as forming Lord 

 Darlington's field establishment, but only gives 

 the full name of one of them. This was 

 Will Price, who had previously whipped in to 

 Mr. Musters in Northamptonshire. As showing 

 that there is nothing new under the sun, it 

 is worth mentioning that Lord Darlington's 

 daughters hunted in pink, a fashion that it was 

 attempted to revive some years ago with, how- 

 ever, but little success, in one or two hunts in 

 the United Kingdom. 



One of the most remarkable proofs of Lord 

 Darlington's devotion to fox-hunting was his 

 habit of keeping a most accurate record of every 

 day's sport. Neither the hardest day in the 

 saddle nor what Nimrod politely terms 'the 

 merriest evening ' afterwards, prevented him from 

 posting his diary before retiring to bed at night. 

 These diaries were religiously kept every year 

 till 1833, when the Bedale country was handed 

 over to Mr. Milbank of Thorp Perrow. 14 It is a 

 regrettable fact that no complete set of the diaries 

 is in existence, not even at Raby itself. 



The earliest diaries that we have seen are 

 those for the seasons 1789-90 and 1790-1 ; but 

 curiously enough they do not appear to have 

 been printed till 1 804, when they were published 

 by H. Reynell, of 21 Piccadilly, 'near the Black 

 Bear,' under the title of The Ear/ of Darlington's u 



13 This seems very probable ; the Raby pack con- 

 sisted of 80 couples of working hounds. 



* The profits resulting from their sale were given to 

 William Storey, a valued servant of Lord Darlington 

 for over fifty years. The still existing Storey's Whin 

 near Piercebridge was named after him. 



15 This title was adhered to, even after Lord Dar- 

 lington's elevation to the Marquessate of Cleveland. 



Foxhounds Operations of the Raby Pack. In 

 these the proceedings of each hunting day are 

 conscientiously recorded : ' The names of coverts 

 where the Hounds threw off'; 'The coverts 

 where Foxes have been found ' ; < The number 

 of Foxes earthed and killed by Lord Viscount 

 Barnard's Foxhounds ' ; and ' Coverts whence 

 Foxes have been killed ' : the above all neatly 

 shown in tabular form ; while in addition each 

 day's sport and its noteworthy incidents are faith- 

 fully recorded, with a description of the weather, 

 and the names of the horses ridden by the master 

 and the hunt servants. The former's favourite 

 hunter during these two seasons seems to have been 

 one rejoicing in the curious name of Pam-be-civil, 

 a prophetic cognomen that smacks rather of 1 85 1 

 than 1790. One noticeable fact about the early 

 days of the Raby Hunt is the diversity of the 

 hours at which Lord Darlington threw off : thus,, 

 on 27 September he did so at noon, on n Oc- 

 tober at 6.30, on the two following days at 10 

 and 1 1 respectively, on 7 November at 7 there 

 can surely have been but little daylight at such 

 an hour while he finished up the season on 

 24 April by meeting at 5.15 at Warden Law 

 an exceedingly bleak hill overlooking the sea, 

 midway between Sunderland and Seaham Har- 

 bour. A more uncongenial trysting place at this 

 hour of a northern spring morning can hardly be 

 imagined. Moreover, as the crow flies it is about 

 twenty-six miles from Raby, and hounds must 

 have lain out, though this is not mentioned in 

 the diary. However, they found and killed a 

 fox, which would not be an easy matter in the 

 same district at the present day. 



The crowning glory, however, of the season 

 of 1790 was a run from Dobinson's Whin near 

 Piercebridge, to Witton Gilbert, about four 

 miles north-west of Durham, ' a most remarkable 

 chase of four hours and thirty-five minutes, very 

 much hard running, and computed to be forty- 

 five miles, my mare first at the death, much the 

 freshest.' This run was honoured by a notice in 

 the Newcastle ' Newspaper ' (sic), which is quoted 

 in the diary, and irresistibly recalls the ' Splendid 

 run with Mr. Puffington's Hounds.' It concludes 

 with the mention that 'only two were in at the 

 death, his Lordship and Mr. Ralph Saunderson ; 

 and what is remarkable, Mr. Saunderson being 

 quite unprepared for the chase, rode it without 

 boots, whip, or spurs.' 



A list of the hounds is first given in the diary 

 for 1797, and that for 1806 contains further in- 

 formation as to their breeding, ages, &c. Lord 

 Darlington was by no means averse to hunt- 

 ing bagged foxes ; several entries in his diaries 

 record good runs with them, notably one in 

 January, 1799, when he turned down at 'Selaby 

 Carrs a fox brought me by Robert Waite from 

 Cutherstone this morning,' and killed it after a 

 ' desperate hard burst of forty-seven minutes.' 

 Nor does his lordship confine himself to acommon- 



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