THE NORTH DURHAM COUNTRY. 17 



a rabbit jumped up and was chased by terriers into the comer 

 of the field in which was a tiny spinney. In this spinney were 

 rabbit holes, and both terriers had disappeared into one of 

 the holes. But they could not even be heard, and on leaving 

 the spinney to reconnoitre, their owner viewed a fox cantering 

 across the field. It then struck him that there must be com- 

 munication between the rabbit holes and the drain in the lane 

 not many yards away, and bringing a man and a spade they 

 opened out the rabbit holes and found that it was so. 



While I am on the subject of John Greenwell and Broom- 

 shields I must say something about the hare hunting of the 

 district. The wide pastures of the big (in area) Satley parish 

 are perhaps as good a hare hunting arena as I ever saw, and I 

 certainly never heard of any estate which had been visited 

 by so many packs of harriers and beagles as Broom shields. 

 John Greenwell owned a very smart' pack himsself for 

 three setasons in the late 'seventies, and theai he only 

 gave them up because his health did not allow of his 

 hunting every day of the week. But before that time 

 I had seen at least three packs on the ground, the first 

 I can remember being the Durham University Beagles, which 

 were then kennelled at Lowes Bam, near Durham, and used 

 occasionally to be brought to Cornsay overnight for a day on 

 the Broomshields estate. Then the late Mr. Nicholas Bowser 

 used to bring a pack of hariiers from Bishop Auckland, but 

 before the Broomshields Hairiers were established the pack 

 oftenest seen on the estate was the Wolsingham Harriers, of 

 which a farmer named Vasey was then the Master. In the 

 Complete Foahunter, published by Methuen and Co. soms 

 fourteen years ago>, I made mention of Mr. Vasiey and his 

 doing?, and asi I do not wish to repeat myself 1 will only say 

 that he v/as a most wholehearted hare hunter, and a great 

 " character." In those days — before the Hares and Rabbits 

 Act — there were a great many hares in the North Durham 

 country, and some of the landowners were very chary about 

 giving leave to the Wolsingham Harriers, who, they said, dis- 

 turbed the country and did not kill very often because they 

 so frequently changed on to a fresh hare when running. The 

 upshot was that most of Mr. Vasey's hunting was done on the 

 boundaries of the moors, near Wolsingham, but he dearly 



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