THE NORTH DURHAM COUNTRY. 13 



midway between the two is Butsfield Burn, which is a long 

 narrow valley, through which runs the river Browney, here- 

 abouts quite a small stream. Butsfield Burn was onoe a fine 

 covert, but the gorse has died away at the easterly end, which 

 for twenty years was a certain find, and now it lies in patches, 

 over a mile of ground, and finding a fox in it is not always 

 certain. But when one covert becomes no longer safe in this 

 country another takes its place, and if Butsfield Burn is not 

 so sure as it once was the neighbouring whin on Dean House 

 farm is as thick as a gorse covert can be, and there is always 

 a litter or two between the whin and the top part of Butsfield 

 Bum. The two are only separated by a single field, and a 

 find at Dean House is a pretty sight, as the covert lies in the 

 centre of a large rough field. South of Dean House, and 

 about a mile away, is the Parson's Whin, a portion of the 

 Satley Glebe, and though I never knew of foxes being bred 

 there, it is close to the Broomshields Covert of Bedlam Lane, 

 where some thirty acres of young plantation affoi*d nice lying, 

 and where there is always a breed or two of foxes. They lie, 

 too, in the Kennel Wood at Broomshields, and in the gill to 

 the east of the hall, in a whin on West Shields farm, and a 

 young plantation on the hill to the east of Broomshields 

 Gill. Not many years ago the Broomshields coverts were 

 the best of this part of the hunt, but the hall was empty 

 for years, the shooting let, and cattle have been allowed inside 

 the coverts. Foxes are always bred in the district, but finding 

 them is not so simple a business as it once was, because they 

 appear to change their quarters very often. When the late 

 Mr. John Maddison Greenwell was alive all the interests of 

 the hunt west of Lanchester were in his hands, and foxes were 

 well looked after, not only on the Broomshields estate, but 

 over a wide area of other properties, many of which were 

 owned by non-resident landlords. John Greenwell was the 

 greatest authority on foxes I ever met or heard of. He, so to 

 speak, lived among them, and practically he not only knew of 

 every litter, but, having watchetd them all from cubhood up- 

 wards, he knew many of them by sight. He had a marvel- 

 lously quick eye for a fox, either when hunting or walking 

 about the country, and his halloa was so powerful and so 

 melodious that he could bring hounds the best part of a mile 



