THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 71 



I would make sure, so I had a fox ready in the Ravenside lane, 

 and all the hunt up to that point was a drag, well laid so as to 

 bring in the best country." He went on to say that when 

 hounds were coming from Airy Hill to Ravenside the fox was 

 shaken out of a bag, and the man who had done the trick 

 hid himself among the fir trees of a tiny plantation, and no 

 one was any the wiser. " I think the Colonel was a little 

 suspicious," he also told me, but nothing ever transpired and 

 everyone was pleaseid. 



Personally, I never had the least suspicion, but I did not 

 know the habits of Spen Bank foxes as I do now, and at the 

 time I thought that certain big coverts were avoided because 

 the fox was being pressed all the way. With the farmers 

 Colonel Cowen was a great favourite, and he was always doing 

 someone or other a good turn. I have seen his farm cart ten 

 miles away from Blaydon Bum, laden with hurdles for a 

 farmer who had had a hole or two bored in his hedges, and 

 I have taken part in entertainments which he provided for 

 men who helped him by walking puppies or looking after foxes. 

 I do not mean the ordinary puppy show entertainment, but 

 little special treats which were much appreciated. For 

 example, if hounds were in the Riding Mill district he would 

 occasionally order dinner for a dozen or so at Havelock's Hotel, 

 and if it was in the spring of the year he would send a monster 

 salmon, a turkey, and perhaps a round of beef for the dinner. 

 He would then invite any farmers he particularly wished 

 to entertain, and during the day's hunting would make up 

 the party from among his hunting friends. There were other 

 places, too, at which the same procedure was adopted, but I 

 mention Riding Mill because I was present at two of these 

 dinners which took place there, the Colonel being the host on 

 one occasion, while at the last dinner of the sort I remember 

 Colonel Cowen and Mr. Fred Lamb (Master of the Harriers) 

 were joint hosts. And apropos the first of these dinners I got 

 into temporary and very slight trouble with Colonel Cowen, 

 for, as he said, hollering his hounds on to a fresh fox, but, as 

 I said, halloaing hard because two- thirds of the pack had 

 gone away with a fox. I may mention here that one of 

 Colonel Cowen' s unorthodox proceedings was the infusion of 

 a considerable amount of bloodhound blood into his foxhound 



