THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 51 



the westeirn part of the Braes of Dei^went country, and a great 

 deal of the present Haydon country. 



Slaley is just within the present Haydon boundary, and 

 it should be explained that the Haydon began as a harrier 

 pack, and its records go back to 1809. I have, or had, a 

 Haydon button which was engraved with the letters H. H. 

 and a running hare, and this button was taken from a scarlet 

 coat, with a stand-up collar, which had been originally worn 

 by a member of the Lee family, of Land Ends, near Haydon 

 Bridge, and it was thought that the coat had been made al:)out 

 1830, ox a little, but not more than a year or two, later. 

 When the Haydon changed from hare to fox I do' not Jcnow, 

 but Mr. Nicholas Maughan, of Newbrough, was Master of the 

 pack known as the Slaley prior to 1845, when he took over 

 what is now the Tynedale countiy, of which he was the first 

 Master. It should be further explained that Mr. Ralph 

 Lambton's hounds were given up — owing to the ill-health of 

 their owner — in 1838, and that for five or six seasons there 

 was a hunt named the " Northumberland and North Ilur- 

 ham," of which Mr. Robertson, of Lees, was Master. Where 

 exactly they hunted it is difficult to say, but all my inquiries 

 go to prove that they were much more on the north than on 

 the south side of the Tyne, and I have never heard that they 

 hunted the Derwent Valley.* Sir Matthew White Ridley, 

 who had what are now the Tynedale and Morpeth countries, 

 was, with his son, in office until 1844, and the Northumberland 

 and Durham Hunt was dissolved a year later; but I believe 

 Sir Matthew had given up or lent some of his country to the 

 newcomer, who, it is just possible, also hunted that part of the 

 North Durham which is nearest the sea, and is now unhunted 

 because of the increased population. 



What is pretty certain is that in the 'forties the Prudhoe 

 and Derwent were hunting the small country which now 

 forms the eastern part of the present Braes of Derwent 

 country, and that when the Slaley pack were in existence the 

 boundary of the two countries was the Watling Street, which 

 crosses the Derwent at Ebchester and the Tyne at Corbridge, 



* It is explained farther on that this pack hunted in North Northum- 

 berland, and that their country included a portion of the County of 

 Durham which was there located, 



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