THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 77 



their unlucky times. Some slight description of the country 

 may be given, as was done when the North Durham country 

 was described, and, first, it may be explained that many of 

 the coverts are what are generally called " gills," which means 

 that they are wooded ravines with a, brook running through 

 them. The banks of some of these ravines are a trifle steep, 

 but ©veiry crossing isi well known, aud there are plenty of 

 them. The other coverts are fir plantations, often with an 

 undergrowth of heather, and open gorses such as are to be 

 found in the adjoining Tynedale and North Durham coun- 

 tries. Foxes are impartial in their attention to coverts, and 

 one year a certain covert or group of coverts close together 

 will invariably hold two or three, while in the following season 

 these places may be drawn blank three or four times. But 

 there are so many coverts in. each of the four quarters of the 

 country that a long jog from covert to covert, except after an 

 incursion into a neighbouring country, is almost unknown, and 

 as foxes are, on the whole, very plentiful, there is seldom 

 much waiting for the necessary article. During the mange 

 epidemic as many as five blank days occurred in a 

 season, but matters have entirely changed in this direction, 

 and I imagine it is several seasons since hoiunds went 

 home without having hunted at least one fox. For my 

 own part, I have not been out en a blank day in the North of 

 England for at least fifteen years, and during that period I 

 cannot remember the Braes of Derwent ever being longer than 

 two hours in finding, while, as a rule, there is a fox in the 

 first covert drawn, and a great number of hunts have been 

 begun before eleven o'clock. It has already been explained 

 that the country is long and narrow, with the Tyne Valley 

 for its northern boundary, and the river Derwent running 

 through its southern side. Also, I have mentioned the ridge 

 of hill in the centre between the two rivers, and have stated 

 that from either river to the crown of the hill is a long, fairly 

 regular slope, which is in most places so gradual that when 

 hounds are running towards the top it is all good galloping 

 ground. The gills all run upwar^ds from one or other of the 

 rivers, most of them being on the Derwent side of the country, 

 and few of them being over a mile in length, with the excep- 

 tion of the Pont Gill, which is wooded for three miles and is 



