THE NORTH DURHAM COUNTRY. 45 



Durham, and a cousin of Lord Ridley. It need hardly be 

 said then that Mr. Maynard had some acquaintance with the 

 country, especially the centre of it west of Durham, but the 

 northern part he did not know, and I have a lively recollection 

 of showing him the coverts in the extreme north of the hunt 

 shortly before his first season commenced. He drove oiit 

 from Newton Hall to Browney Bank, where I met him, and 

 during a long summer afternoon I not only showed him all 

 the coverts within a considerable distance of that place, but 

 introduced him to many of the farmers. With these same 

 farmers he quickly became a great favourite, and before he 

 had completed his first season he probably knew a very great 

 majority of those who farmed the land within the confines of 

 the hunt. I may add that Mr. Maynard was a large and 

 highly successful farmer himself, and if I recollect rightly 

 he had some 600 acres of mixed land in his own hands round 

 about Newton Hall, and I also remember that he had a big 

 local reputation as a feeder of fat stock, who often secured 

 the top prizes at the Christmas auctions. But it is Mr. 

 Maynard's hunting that I have to do with now, and I must 

 admit to having felt great admiration for his methods, as soon 

 as I came to understand them, which was not until he had 

 held office for at least two seasons. Indeed, between 1868 

 and 1873 I did not see much of the Durham country, but 

 had made acqiiaintance with many other packs, notably the 

 Ledbury, Lord Coventry's (now the Croome), the Worcester- 

 shire and North Herefordshire, Heythrop, Bicester, Old 

 Berks, and South Oxfordshire. I had had four full seasons 

 divided among these eight packs, and I had seen many other 

 packs on odd days, and as I had been " taking stock " all 

 the time I think I may say, with all modesty, that I was in a 

 position to understand ^and appreciate the style in which 

 Mr. Maynard was hunting the country. His hounds, to 

 begin with, were to a great extent a scratch pack, for dumb 

 madness had visited the pack shortly before the division of 

 country was made, and though drafts had been sent as free 

 gifts from many Masters, the pack was a scratch one in the 

 sense that it had not been bred in North Durham. The 

 kennels were at Newton Hall (Mr. Maynard's residence), and 

 the Master at once began to breed hounds, and very soon had 



