74 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



culty about the names at timesi, altliough when hunting he 

 knew what every hound did. Even when I was looking over 

 his pack he held forth as to the merits of one good-looking 

 bitch, and then turned to the huntsman and asked whether 

 she was " Lively " or " Likely." This, however, is a 

 digression, and, to return to Colonel Cowen and his pack, I 

 must not forget to say that his huntsman, Siddle Dixon, was 

 quite an original, but in many ways a wonderful man. 



His father, often called Old Siddle Dixon, was huntsman 

 to the Newcastle and Gateshead Harriers, and his son, John 

 Dixon, is now stud groom to Mr. I. E. Cowen, son of Colonel 

 Cowen, and secretary of the Braes of Derwent. Siddle Dixon, 

 jun., was a bold and fearless rider, and had the very best 

 huntsman's voice I ever heard. His style of talking to his 

 hounds as they drew was marvellous, his voice being loud and 

 yet extremely melodious, and his halloa was simply wonderful, 

 while his voice " carried " in a fashion I have only 

 once known before or since. But in ordinary con- 

 versation his Tyneside dialect was so pronounced that 

 the Southern would not have understood a word he 

 said, and he was rather of the uncultured and 

 rough order of huntsmen. Many of his whippers-in I have 

 some slight recollection of, but ouly a man named Brown — 

 frequently spoken of in the district as James Edward, with 

 no mention of his surname — struck me as an original. James 

 Edward was not of the hunt servant breed like Siddle Dixon, 

 but he also was a bold and determined rider, with the 

 character of being able to " go " on all soi*ts of refractory 

 steeds. In addition, he was about the best handler of a fox 

 I ever saw, and to the casual eye the most careless. I have 

 seen him more than once thrust his hand into a drain when 

 it appeared almost obvious that the fox must have been 

 facing him, but I never saw or heard of his being bitten, and 

 he was quite in his element and simply invaluable at a dig. 

 He had, in fact, many of the qualities of a high-class hunt 

 servant, but he was unsteady, and the Colonel was obliged to 

 part with him, after which he took — as far as I can remember 

 — to horse-breaking. Siddle Dixon continued to act as hunts- 

 man until Colonel Cowen gave up in 1895, both being at the 

 time well up in years; indeed, for some seasons the hunting 



