18 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



loved a day at High Stoop or Deau House, and I once re- 

 member him running a de©r from the north plantation (Lord 

 Bute's) to the fishponds at Woodlands, where the deer took 

 to the water, and the Master called his hounds off and beat a 

 hasty retreat. He did not know, by the way, that his hounds 

 were running a deer, for he had been in covert when the 

 quarry broke away, but I told him when he joined me, a few 

 minutes afterwards, and all he said was : ' ' Nowt of t' sort, 

 thou's seen a cuddy " (donkey). Even the fact that hounds 

 ran the lane from Lord Bute's to the Five Lane Ends did not 

 convince him. 



After old Vasey's day John Greenwell's own pack hunted 

 the district and showed fine sport. This Master was a bom 

 huntsman, first rate on the horn, and with a most melodious 

 voice. He occasionally hunted a fox about Sand Edge, or 

 Cat Back, and at times took his hounds into the extreme west 

 of the Braes of Derwent country, near the moors, when if he 

 found a fox he simply could not help hunting it. It was with 

 these hounds, hunting round Newton Hall, the residence ol 

 Mr. Maynard, then Master of the North Durham, that 1 saw 

 a free fight between hunting people and farm labourers, which 

 I have described elsewhere ; but such a thing was absolutely 

 unusual, and I never heard of a similar occurrence anywhere 

 in the north of England. Mr. Vasey's hounds were a very 

 scratch lot to look at, being of all sizes, and many of them 

 a good deal on the leg. He liked a big hound, because oi the 

 high stone walls, and here I may remark that harriers always 

 did better than beagles in this country for the same reason; 

 but this applied chiefly to the most westerly ground, where 

 the walls' were much higher than they are lower down the 

 country. Near the moors all the fences are formidable walb; 

 further down the valley there are tv.'o or three thorn fences 

 to every wall, and roundabout Lanche&ter the country is 

 suitable even for amaJl beagles. ]\Ir. Greenwell's hounds were 

 a great improvement on the Wolsingham. Their owner went 

 here and there, procuring drafts, at a time when there v/ere 

 many harriers in the market, and as he drafted both at the 

 head and tail he soon had a fairly even pack, which were 

 wonderfully under control. 



I used to whip in to him at times, and I have one particular 



