50 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



what are the Morpeth and Tynedale countries — or at least a 

 considerable part of them. Nearly opposite Mr. Humble's 

 house at Eltringham is a fine Tynedale covert, known as 

 Horsley Wood, and Mr. Humble had been in the habit of 

 taking his hounds there long before Sir Matthew had a pack 

 of hounda. But Mr. Humble's hounds were trencher fed, and 

 perhaps rather poorly supported. Anyhow, when an orthodox 

 and smart hunting establishment was established north of the 

 Tyne the landowners one and all transferred their allegiance 

 to the new hunt, and Mr. Humble had to curtail his forays 

 on what are now the Tynedale coverts. The story goes that 

 Sir Matthew's hounds on one occasion drew Horsley Wood 

 blank, and while hounds were drawing a gamekeeper informed 

 the Master that the covert had been well routed out on the 

 previous day by " the Eltringham dogs." Sir Matthew was 

 veiy angry and as he reached the end of the covert where the 

 field was gathered he saw Mr. Humble and opened on him 

 in voluble language. For five minutes at least he poured forth 

 a volley of abuse, and then stopped to take breath, when 

 " Squire " Humble, as he was always called, took his pipe 

 out of his mouth, and quietly observed, " Gan on. Sir 

 Mattha " (local for Matthew), " gan en; I can bide a bit 

 mair." The baronet's battery was completely spiked, as the 

 field burst into a roar of laughter, and, as the polo people 

 say. Humble rode off with all the honours of victory. 



It is probable that after Mr. Humble's death there was a 

 period in which the Braes of Derwent country was unhunted, 

 for I can find no record of the Durham County pack travel- 

 ling so far north, but they ran into it occasionally, and I believe 

 most frequently between the Durham coverts at Greencroft 

 and that part of the Derwent Valley which is known as the 

 Pont Gill. But in 1837 a new pack, called the Prudhoe and 

 Derwent Hounds, were established, and hunted the eastern 

 part of the country for several seasons. How long this pack 

 was in existence I am not sure, and I have never been able 

 to find evidence of its doings after the year 1843. In that 

 year Mr. Thomas Ramsay was Master, and he may have held 

 on a year or two longer, but of that I am not certain. Some 

 time during the forties there was a pack of foxhounds at 

 Slaley, trencher fed, I believe, and they hunted what is now 



