68 HUNTING IN M.^NY COUNTRIES. 



rails which John Greenwell and I jumped, was still standing 

 two or three years ago^ — and thence to Highfield and over the 

 hill to Kipper Linn, where there was a long check, and we 

 thought he must have got to ground in some rabbit holes. 

 Hounds did not mark, however, but after a time hit off the 

 line in the Gill below Lead Hill and hunted to Hindley, and 

 into the big covert on Lord Allendale's property which lies 

 between the Tyne and Broomley. If there was a change it took 

 place here, for we got away on the Broomley side of the covert 

 and went faster than we had gone all day to Fotherley Gill, 

 where we slowed down again, but hounds recovered the line 

 and carried it to Scales Cross and up the Minsteracres Dene 

 to North Kellas, which we reached about dusk, and where we 

 quickly lost hounds. John Greenwell had never been in 

 Kellas in his life, and I knew very little about the covert, 

 and, to cut a long story short, we were there for at least an 

 hour after it was quite dark, and started to go back to Blanch- 

 land with only one of the nine hounds. Two or three more 

 caught us up on our homeward ride, and we sat down to 

 dinner terribly exalted over such a hunt, but rather uncom- 

 fortable about the lost hounds. After dinner we fell asleep 

 on either side of the fire, but were soon roused upi by a rush 

 of excited individuals who poured into the room, all talking 

 at once. It appeared that a ' ' Dean and Chapter ' ' woodman 

 from Blanchland had been at a funeral at Corbridge, and 

 had been walking home during the afternoon. Being a local 

 man, he knew all the short cuts, and had come through the 

 western part of South Kellas — where there is a cart road — 

 on his way home, and in the corner of the plantation he had 

 come upon three couples of hounds with their dead fox. 

 Having heard of the projected hunt overnight he knew what 

 hounds they were, and cut off the mask and brush and put 

 them in his pocket. He then began his five to six miles walk, 

 but he had already been from Blanchland to Corbridge and 

 back to Kellas, a distance of well over twenty miles, and 

 therefore he was very slow on the road. The next thing that 

 happened was that the hounds, with the two or three which 

 had joined us, were fed and fastened up in a stable, and that 

 I helped to brew a huge bowl of punch, a liquor for which 

 the Crewe Arms was then greatly famed. 



