62 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



straight all the way. ITounds were never more than two' miles 

 away from the road, and the point is just oiver twelve miles, 

 while the country from the high ground at Berry Edge wa&, at 

 that time — before there was a single colliery or a single line of 

 rails in the Lanchester valley — capital riding-ground, three- 

 quarters at least being grass, and the rest arable. Only three 

 coverts were touched. Boggle Hole, Holly Bush, and Hill Top, 

 and the two first-named are very small places, while Hill Top 

 perhaps extends over thirty acres. About the time I have no 

 information, and if it was taken it has long been forgotten, 

 nor did the hunt ever find its way into print. But in my 

 young days it was still being talked of when good runs were 

 under discussion, and the late Mr. Edward Waldy, of 

 Barmpton, near Darlington, who was staying at Shotley Lodge 

 at the time, used to speak of it as " about the best thing he 

 ever saw." 



About the " Castleside dogs " I have little more to say. 

 From all the accounts which I used to hear they had plenty of 

 fun for several seasons, and they were lucky in having a 

 country in which there was little game preservation, except 

 on the moors, next to no population, and some half-dozen 

 enthusiasts to keep the game going. The forfeited Derwent- 

 water estates, which covered a great deal of the country, had 

 not then been broken up and sold, and there was also the 

 Crown land about Chopwell. Further west a great deal of 

 good country, with many coverts, was owned by the Dean and 

 Chapter of Durham, or by Lord Crewe's trustees, which 

 estates now belong to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The 

 latter body, like their predecessors, are equally well disposed 

 towards sport, and this Mr. Priestman has found during his 

 six and twenty years of mastership. I may perhaps be allowed 

 toi quote a footnote which is to be found on page 360 of 

 Huntinfj in Olden Days, which is as follows: — 



" Stephen Goodall jumped in and out of the railway gates 

 when with the Bramham Moor, and another fine jumping per- 

 formance was that of the late Mr. Jonathan Richardson, who 

 jumped in and out of a sheepfold at Stagshaw Bank. The 

 walls were 5 ft. and 5 ft. 3 in. high, and the top courses were 

 mortared. . . ." 



In 1854 a new hunt was formed in the Derwent Valley by 



