THE NORTH DURHAM COUNTRY. 21 



c 



tained there, as well as at the hall. Hunt servants were always 

 very welcome, and farmers, gamekeepers, and others would 

 find their way there on any day that either foxhounds or 

 harriers were in the neighbourhood; but the great day was 

 Saturday in the winter months, when all and sundry were 

 allowed to try their greyhounds over the estate. John Green- 

 well was almost as fond of coursing as he was of hunting, and 

 as there were scores of greyhounds within a ten-mile radius, 

 and leave for trials elsewhere was not easily obtained, it will 

 be understood that there was a rush to Broomshields, especially 

 during the inclosed coursing boom, when meetings were being 

 constantly held at Gosforth Park. The only drawback, from 

 tlie greyhound owners' point of view wa^ that the hares were 

 too strong, and that in consequence some of the greyhounds 

 got too big a dose, but the demand for trials never showed any 

 decrease, and the Saturday coursings were continued almost 

 up to Mr. Greenwell's death in 1886. 



" Tom " Watson, Master of the Darlington, was the exact 

 antithesis of Creighton Foster as a hare hunter. His keen- 

 ness was quite remarkable and his running powers simply 

 extraordinary. His pack, too, were excellent in their work, 

 well cared for, and admirably hunted. They were the first 

 pack to kill five hares in a day on the estate, and I may em- 

 phasise the fact that each of these five hares stood up for 

 quite half an hour. Indeed, a weak hare was almost unknown 

 in the Satley district in the 'eighties, and it is on record that 

 on one occasion, where there was a good deal of frost in the 

 ground, twenty-seven greyhound trials were run without a 

 single hare being killed, but I must add that in nearly every 

 case the hare, after being well coursed, found shelter in one 

 of the larch plantations of the estate. To return for a moment 

 to the Darlington, the pack used to be brought to Tow Law 

 by train on the hunting days, and when the sport was over 

 many of the field would drive or go by train to Durham, 

 thirteen miles away, to be entertained at dinner by the late 

 Mr. J. F. Bell, of North End, father of tlie present joint 

 Master of the North Durham, and of Captain W. Bell, of tJie 

 12th Lancers, who was wounded in the wax. 



About this same period I have a recollection of Mr. " Jack " 

 Pease, now Lord Gainford, bringing a pack of beagles 



