104 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



with thin sawn strips of timber that a hunter can dispel 

 with impunity. Thus much of Northumberland remains 

 comparatively easy riding. What it would be if North- 

 amptonshire hedge-cutters were imported from the Mid- 

 lands, and with them a sufficiency of Leicestershire ash 

 timber — well, the shivering would then be on the part of the 

 rider rather than that of the rails ! As it is, I beg to point 

 to Northumberland as specially innocuous riding ground 

 for the average horseman who can afford to mount him- 

 self fairly, and to whom a heavy fall is no longer an 

 ambition and a pleasurable achievement. At least so do 

 they aver who live there, and whose judgment is based 

 upon a lifetime's experience rather than, as in my own 

 case, upon brief passing acquaintance. 



As hounds buckled to work on the turf, we found 

 ourselves among pastures wide and wild as those of the 

 Cottesmore, but without the deep ridge-and-furrow, without 

 the steep hills, and without, as I have said, the strong ox- 

 fences that belong to 'the bullock-grounds of Mid-England, 

 and such, as I found on the morrow and since, constitutes 

 the bulk of the smooth highlands of the Tynedale and the 

 Morpeth. In twenty minutes we had passed the World's 

 End farm and reached Ogle Dene — dene being in the 

 language of the country, if I interpret it rightly, a wooded 

 dell, with a possible trout-stream at bottom. By Hetchester 

 they ran on to the verge of Belsay Park (the seat of Sir A. 

 Middleton), when, on the turnpike road that divides Mor- 

 peth from Tynedale, their fox was to be seen travelling the 

 dusty macadam for more than a mile. The view assisted 

 hounds to keep on close terms with him ; and, as he bent 

 into their own country again by Harnham and its quaint 

 cliff, they drove him through Bolam (Lord Decies'), and 

 pressed him hard over Angerton Moor to Angerton Station 

 (some fifty minutes). In the wood, close by, the main 

 earth was open, and in the heat of the day the field turned 

 gladly, to the Master's invitation, at Meldon. 



Of the field of the day I may jot down the following 

 few names, viz.: Mr. Laycock (also of Churchill, Daventry) 

 and Miss Laycock, Mr. C. Perkins (a heavy-weight of 

 highest calibre, riding excellent horses), with Miss Perkins, 



