THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 83 



find in the ma&a of brushwood which remains. With the 

 exception of Newhouse, the coverts I have mentioned are all 

 on the Shotley Hall esitate, the owner of which, Mr. Hugh 

 Walton-Wilson, has died since this paper was written. 

 The Masiter, however, rents a good deal of the shooting, 

 entirely in the intierests of the foxes, for he has no 

 time to shooti. Two miles west of Shotley and south 

 of the River Derwent is the Hole House Gill and a small covert 

 at Bridge Hill, which are occasionally drawn, but they are not 

 sure finds, and in the long run it pays better for hounds to 

 meet at Allansford, and draw up the river. This draw is a 

 most complicated bit of country, which includes Mosswood 

 Banks, the Sneep, and the Badger Wood on the north side, 

 and Derwent Grange Wood, Ca&tlesade Wood, and the 

 Hiseho'pe and Horsley Hope Gills on the south side 

 of the Derwent. Both sides of the river are well 

 foxed, and probably the half-dozen coverts I have 

 mentioned afford more sport than any other group in the 

 hunt, for there is a fine open country on either side, and 

 foxes of late years have hung very little to the river, but have 

 gone boldly away. Foxes found at Mosswood will frequently 

 keep to the river until they reach the Sneep, and at times they 

 will cross and re-oross, going up one side and down the other, 

 and vice versa, but quite an extraordinary number break at 

 the Badger Wood (a small plantation which tenninates the 

 chain of coverts), and boldly face the long asoent to the 

 higher ground about Black Hedley. Indeed, the Badger Wood 

 has been the real starting point for scores of good hunts, and 

 it is also remarkable for the fact that on one windy day 

 hounds travelled up the long lino of grass for a considerable 

 distance with three foxes and four hares in front of them, and 

 in full view of the field. Hares and foxes seemed to be making 

 for one point, and it was only when the lane at Durham Field 

 — a mile from the covert^ — was reached that hounds, who had 

 stuck religiously to the particular fox they had hunted out of 

 covert., were free from what looked to be most ridiculous 

 obstruction. 



When hounds draw up the Derwent side from Allansford 

 the meadows above the river banks form a fine coign of 

 vantage for the field, who go forward, but behind the pack, 



Q 2 



