12 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



point for Lord Bute's, and I do not remember ever having 

 seen one go for the open moor. Lord Bute's has been for sixty 

 years at least a great stand by of the Durham hounds. In 

 the 'sixties, when Dowdeswell was huntsman, hounds used to 

 be brought to Stuartfield Lodge (the agent's house) in Sep- 

 tember, and would be quartered there for several days, and 

 hunting every morning. In those days cubhunting— in the 

 North, at all events — did not atti-act a tenth of the people it 

 now does, and probably the meets were only sent to half a 

 dozen landowners and tenant farmers who resided in the neigh- 

 bourhood which it was intended to hunt. I was at Woodlands 

 all one autumn and winter, owing to an accident which kept 

 me away from school, and many a good early mormng hunt 

 I had with " 'ard Tommy Dowdeswell," as he was locally 

 called. Lord Bute's at the time harboured quite a number 

 of roedeer, which bred there — there are still a few in the neigh- 

 bourhood — and it was a difficult matter to prevent hounds 

 getting on to the line of one ol these deer when they were 

 out of sight. They used to break out over Whitehall Moss, 

 and make direct for the wooded Derwent Valley, several miles 

 away, and it was a, most difficult matteir tO' stop the paolv, for 

 Whitehall Moss was boggy and soft, and hounds could cross 

 it much faster than a horse. Dowdeswell was a bit of a 

 veteran when I first remember him, but as hard a man across 

 country as I ever saw. The tallest walls had no terror for 

 him, and on Blueskin, an angular grey — almost a blue roan 

 — with a stringhalt but thoroughbred, and an extraordinary 

 jumper, he rode in truly wonderful fashion. He retired when 

 the hunt was divided in 1870, and after a spell of horse dealing 

 and inn-keeping at Staindrop, in the Zetland country, he came 

 back to North Durham, and resided at Cornsay, and on a pony 

 he used to follow hounds until he was more than eighty years 

 of age. He died some twelve or fourteen years ago, and by his 

 wishes the tail of his old horse Blueskin was buried with him. 



I have mentioned the North Durham country round 

 Lord Bute's and Catback, and now I must take my readers 

 further south to the neighbourhood of Satley and Broom- 

 shields, and I am inclined to think that in these days this 

 is the best country in the hunt from a galloping point of view. 

 Satley lies three to four miles due south of Woodlands, and 



