56 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



George Maw, who' for some years lived at Riddlehamliope, 

 west of Blaiichland, and he not only never missed a day with 

 these hounds, but looked after stopping all the length of the 

 Derwent Valley from the Sneep to his own place of residence, 

 and was a sort of right-hand man to the hunt. This Mr. Maw 

 was a very hard man across country, who rode thoroughbred 

 cast-offs from the racecourse, and I remember when I was a 

 very small boy being shown certain high walls he had jumped 

 on Black Hedley farm, and thinking what a hero he must have 

 been. 



The " Castleside Dogs," as they were spoken of locally, 

 doubtless furnished the talented author of Jorrocks with many 

 ideas, but I am very strongly of opinion that nearly all of 

 Surtees's best characters were of the composite order, that he 

 took a certain peculiarity from one man, another trait from 

 another man, and so forth, and that even in the matter of his 

 many descriptions of costume he pursued the same line of 

 action. It has, however, been an article of faith in the 

 Derwent Valley for sixty years or more that Joseph — " Jos." 

 Kirk he was always called — supplied a great deal of the general 

 make-up of James Pigg. Kirk was a blacksmith by trade, 

 but endowed with an extraordinary love of hunting. He was 

 also a very determined horseman, who knew no fear, but he 

 was hard on his mounts, and had no idea of saving them. He 

 acted as huntsman to the Castleside pack, and certain stories 

 are to be found about him and the Master, Mr. Richardson, 

 in Hvnting in the Olden Times, by "W. Scarth Dixon. Whether 

 Kirk was ever in the employ of Mr. Surtees I have never been 

 able to find out, but I should explain that for a period after 

 he came into the Hamsterley estate Mr. Surtees had a pack 

 of harriers, with which he hunted the neighbourhood of his 

 home. Hamsterley Hall is situated in the Derwent Valley, 

 rather less than four miles from the present Braes of Derwent 

 kennels and about double the distance from Castleside, and 

 Mr. Surtees was living there and writing throughout the whole 

 existence of the Castleside pack. But earlier in the eighteenth 

 century a Mr. Brewis, who lived at the Hag, now part of the 

 Hamsterley estate, also had a pack of harriers, and Mr. 

 Richardson always had au idea that Kirk had been in his 

 employ. Kirk was not by any means a young man when he 



