THE HOLDERNESS. 151 



brother lived at Else Park, near Beverley, first had the Holder- 

 ness country as now defined. In " Country Quarters " (" Baily's 

 Magazine," January, 1872) we learn that "his huntsman was 

 Jack Eobinson, the most resolute fellow in the world. He once 

 jumped the Driffield Canal. He would invariably turn his cap 

 hind-side before wjien going at a very big place, so that people 

 knew there was something before them when Jack was seen 

 putting his head-gear in order, and Mr. Bethell would then turn 

 round and say, ' I won't see thee killed ;' hence he was called 

 'Hell-fire Jack.'" 



At Mr. Bethell's death a committee hunted the country, 

 consisting of Mr. R. Bethell, IMr. Sykes (afterwards SirTatton), 

 ^[r. William Hall, of Packthorp, and Messrs. Arthur and Henry 

 Maister, of Beverley, the kennels being at Brand's Burton. 

 Then, in 1806, Sir Mark Sykes bought Lord Feversham's 

 hounds, and hunted the country for two seasons, when an 

 arrangement was entered into with Mr. R. Watt, of Bishop's 

 Burton, to hunt the two countries as had been previously done. 

 In 1811 Mr. Digby Legard established the old Bethell country, 

 and his huntsman, Naylor, said that the scent was so good in 

 Holderness a man might there kill a fox with a sow and a litter 

 of pigs. This lasted until 1821, when Mr. Hay, of Dunse 

 Castle, took the country for a couple of years, and then occurred 

 an interregnum, during which, I believe, Mr. Osbaldeston (The 

 Squire) came for a very short period ; but he was not the man 

 for Holderness, and, although he has the credit of ha^dng planted 

 some gorse coverts, he did not stay long. Indeed, without 

 wishing at all to detract from his fame, it can with truth be 

 said that he never succeeded in plough countries, whatever he 

 might have been on the grass ; he always very quickly relin- 

 quished a provincial country, however good it might be. In 

 fact, when a man gives up the chase as he did, soon after or 

 at middle age, we may draw the inference that it was less 

 hunting itself than the eclat that he derived from it, in which 

 Mr. Osbaldeston delighted. Mr. Hill, of Thornton, from 



