HUNTING 



IN 



MANY COUNTRIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



The North Durham Country. 



THERE ARE TWO HUNTS in the north of England 

 which 5 owing probably in some degree to their remote- 

 ness, and perhaps in a larger degree to their insignificance, have 

 up to the present received comparatively no treatment at the 

 hands of the hunting historian. Probably some of my readers 

 w^ill pull up short at the word " insignificance," and therefore 

 I must explain that I only use the word in a comparative 

 sense, for the two hunts — the Braes of Derwent and the North 

 Durham — are not in the least insignificant as regards the sport 

 they show, the attention they attract, the fields they draw, 

 and so forth ; but being small countries, and two days a week 

 establishments, they are not exactly on a plane with their 

 neighbours — the Tynedale on the north and the Zetland to 

 the south. 



The only history of these two packs that I have seen was 

 a short condensed account which appeared in a work called 

 the Foxhminds of Great Britain and Ireland, published in 

 1906, and which gave no more than a bare statement of facts. 

 Very little space for each pack was allowed, and the details 

 given therein can be considerably added to, though I must at 

 the outset admit that certain information which I have tried 

 to obtain has been of so vague a character that little reliance 

 can bs placed in it. At the same time I may state that I 

 have known both countries for a great number of years, and 

 have never really lost touch with sport they have had, while 

 I have collected a certain amount of notes which I can use. 

 But I must make it clearly understood that I am not going 

 to adhere closely to chronological order, that certain periods 



