60 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



checked in a garden, and where Kirk, off his horse and looking 

 for his fox, encountered the owner of the garden and had a 

 rough-and-tumble sort of scrap with him. This incident, it 

 has always been understood, was the foundation of the Pigg 

 and the melon-frame story in Handley Cross, and there is 

 every probability of its being true. But, curiously enough, 

 the hunt was not at an end, for while the altercation was in 

 progress the fox was seen creeping up the hill behind the 

 garden, and hounds actually ran right back to the Sneep. On 

 the outward journey they went by Espershields, and thence 

 near Slaley, and on to Swallowfield, and over the hill to Hex- 

 ham. On the return journey they again went through 

 Swallowfield, and then over Corbridge Fell, and so to Minister- 

 acres and the Sneep. The fox avoided Dipton, the biggest 

 covert in the country, and from the fact that he went right 

 back to where he was originally found it is only reasonable to 

 assume that there was no change. Still, the distance is very 

 great, with an eleven-mile point each way, but the pace was 

 never great, and — I have been told — there were fewer foxes 

 at the time north ol the Derwent than there were on the south 

 side. Mr. Richardson used to say that in the late 'forties and 

 'fifties the Derwent Valley was stuffed full of foxes, but they 

 were difficult to find on the higher ground near Minsteracres 

 and Kellas. The Sneep was, as it is now, a gr^eat stronghold, 

 and so also were the coverts near Blanchland. The hunt I 

 have just described is, I find, mentioned in Hunting in the 

 Olden Days, and so are two others, which I do not remember 

 to have heard of, but the other great hunt I have in mind is 

 not referred to in Mr. Scarth Dixon's book, and I wrote down 

 the particulars when I heard the story some years ago from 

 my father himself. 



I always knew vaguely of this run which the late Mr. 

 Matthew Kearney of the Ford was fond of describing, and 

 the description he used to give tallied almost exactly with Mr. 

 Richardson's own account, but the latter used to say that Mr. 

 Kearney only joined in half-way. The run in question took 

 place in 1856, or the following year, after a meet at Shotley 

 Lodge, where Mr. Richardson then resided, and where the 

 present kennels are situated. Now there is a building 

 estate half a mile south of the house, and a hill behind, 



