THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 75 



had been greatly confined tx> the woodlands, and hounds were 

 more in the east of the country than in the west. 

 Just as there was " lamentation in the Vale of Sheepwash 

 when Michael Hardy died," so there was lamentation in the 

 Vale of Derwent when Colonel Cowen announced his inten- 

 tion of retiring, and this was perhaps the more pronounced 

 because at the moment there was no one to take his place; 

 indeed, during the season 1895-6 the country was not hunted, 

 except on two or three occasions, when Mr. Rogerson brought 

 over the North Durham, but the distance was too great to 

 permit of much country being drawn. In the following year 

 Mr Lewis Priestman came forward, and is now in his 

 twenty- sixth season as IMagter, and I am only voicing public 

 opinion when I say that throughout this long period the 

 country has enjoyed capital sport and pronounced prosperity. 

 That the style of hunting has become greatly changed, and 

 that the sport has been of a faster and more lively character 

 than it was during the latter period of Colonel Cowen's 

 mastership is a fact which admits of no dispute, but this 

 I can explain as being due to two or three very natural 

 causes. In the first place, as I have shown. Colonel Cowen 

 kept the hounds until he was an old man ; he was, more- 

 over, a biggish weight in the latter years of his mastership, 

 and greatly preferred hunting in the long gills which inter- 

 sect the country to running in the open. Then many of his 

 hounds still had the bloodhound strain, and the field had 

 become accustomed to woodland hunting, and, in point of 

 fact, the hunting was latterly conducted on a plan which was 

 a little slow for young blood. The new Master was, broadly 

 speaking, forty years younger than his predecessior, was a 

 hard man over a. country, and had been for seiveral seasons 

 a regular follower of the North Durham, Tynedale, and 

 Zetland packs. He had kept horses at Bishop Auckland, for the 

 Zetland, as well as at home, and he had many hunting friends 

 of his own age, anxious to hunt with him, and who were keen 

 on the riding as well as on the hunting part of the business. 

 I should explain, however, that Mr. Priestman had had most 

 of his early hunting with Colonel Cowen's hounds, and had, 

 in fact, been for several seasons one of the regular followers 

 of the pack. He knew the country and its inhabitants, and 



