THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 85 



abouts the country is very wild, being a bleak moorland, about 

 1,200ft. above sea level, but hounds hunted on nearly to Bum 

 Hill station. They bent left-handed — which means inland — 

 short of the station, and crossed the Whitehall allotments, 

 parts of which were almost waterlogged but luckily the pace 

 was not great at this part of the hunt. An hour after leaving 

 the Sneep they arrived at the North Plantation — one of the 

 coverts known as Lord Bute's — and by this time the awkward 

 going and the depth of the moor had shaken off thre©- fourths 

 of the field. Still, there were nearly thirty riders when hounds 

 entered Lord Bute's, but many were from the far side of the 

 country, and a long way from home, the upshot being that 

 when hounds worked through to the high road there was a 

 general departure. The Master, two whippers-in, and three 

 others were then left with hounds, who had a line out of the 

 covert on to Eliza farm. It did not look hopeful, but hounds 

 disappeared behind an avenue of beech trees, and the half- 

 dozen trotted round to see if they could carry it on beyond. 

 When we had gone past the beeches and looked for hounds 

 nothing was to be seen ; but a moment later we discovered 

 them a quarter of a mile ahead, going just as fast as they could 

 travel. Luckily, the fox, who had been heading towards 

 Woodlands, had turned on Sheepwalks farm and gone over 

 to Rippon Burn, and we caught hounds as they crossed the 

 lane, a good mile beyond Eliza farm. And as they ran 

 through Rippon Burn one or two of us viewed the fox in the 

 open field leaving the neighbourhood of the covert. Hounds 

 were close behind, and ran through a comer of the Sawmill 

 Wood, across the park at Woodlands, and down to the brook 

 near Sunnyside. They did not cross at first, but hunted 

 fast down the brook to Harbuck, then went by Stockerley and 

 Esp Green to Greencroft, running right through the park and 

 on to the Tower Wood ; but by this time it was quite dark, 

 and we never knew for certain whether they killed their fox. 

 Indeed, after vigorous horn-blowing had brought two-thirds 

 of the pack to the Tower, it was far too dark to count them, 

 but there were not many missing when the kennels were 

 reached. This was an extraordinary hunt, and the last part 

 of it much the best, for hounds were racing all the time, and 

 from the North Plantation to the Tower Wood they had 



