58 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



first place, Mr. Surtees died in 1864, fifty-eight years ago, and 

 though I am not certain about it, I imagine Fox's service 

 with the Hurworth was at a later datei. Croft, is on 

 the Yorkshire side of the Tees, Hamsterley on the extreme 

 north of the county of Durham, some of the Surtees property 

 being in Northumberland and yet only a mile or two away. 

 And as there are other families of Surtees in South Durham, 

 I think it probable that it was another Mr. Surtees which 

 Fox remembers. The name of " Handley Cross " is taken 

 from the Hamsterley estate, there being to this day a high 

 bridge over a brook, between the lodge and the house, which 

 was always called Handley Cross Bridge. The one character 

 one knows of in Surtees's book which was actually drawn from 

 a single man was that of " Independent Jimmy," in Rom- 

 ford's hounds. He was a man who drove a two-horse covered 

 waggonette between Newcastle-on-Tyne and Shotley Bridge, 

 before the railway was made. The 'bus passed the Ham- 

 sterley lodge every day, and its driver was on the road many 

 years after Surtees died, and was absolutely true to the 

 description. Even the story told in connection with Mr. 

 Stotfold's staghounds was practically true, for the 'bus driver 

 — whose name was either Bell or Brown — did actually take 

 one of his horses and join in a hunt, leaving three market 

 women sitting in his 'bus, to which he returned an hour and 

 a half later, and calmly resumed his journey. Another 

 character who has his original in the Derwent Valley was Mr. 

 " Jogglebury Crowdey," who was Surtees's own tenant at 

 Milkwell Burn. This worthy, whose name I have forgotten, 

 was half -gentleman, half -farmer, and was constantly in 

 trouble for trespassing after " gibby sticks." His costume, 

 as he appeared in Sponge's Sporting Tmir, was exactly repro- 

 duced from life, and also his " puff, blow, wheeze." He 

 followed hounds for the puirpose of stick hunting, and there 

 was a constant trespass feud between him and the Government 

 official who resided at Chopwell House, in Chopwell Wood, 

 a 1200-acre plantation, owned by the Crown, and undoubtedly 

 the original of Pinch Me Near Forest. The description of 

 Pinch Me Near in Handley Cross exactly tallies with the real 

 Chopwell, and with such material at hand it is hardly likely 

 that the author would go elsewhere when he wanted to describe 



