86 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



made a seven-mile point over as good a grass line a.s there is 

 in the N'orth Durham country. 



The whole hunt lasted over three hours, and there were 

 even longer points in it than I have just mentioned, viz., 

 from where hounds turned in the early part of the hunt, when 

 not far from Highfield farm, to Bum Hill, and from Burn 

 Hill to the finish. Of course, the middle part was slow, but 

 good hound work, and the day was one of those on which 

 scent was first rate on the grass, moderate on the heather, 

 and very poor in covert. In the first and latter parts there 

 was practically no covert work, and though hounds ran through 

 the Woodlands district they really avoided all the coverts. 

 Even at Rippon Burn the fox went just outside the coverts 

 alongside the brook, and after that he never touched a real 

 covert until he reached the Tower Wood. In many respects 

 this was the best hunt I ever saw with Mr. Priestman's 

 hounds, but it came rather late in the day, for it was begin- 

 ning to get dark when we passed through Woodlands, and was 

 really too dark for riding across conntry after that. It would, 

 however, have been impossible to stop hounds after they had 

 once begun to run hard on Eliza farm, and when the fox was 

 viewed in front near Rippon Bum the riders were wide of 

 hounds on the higher ground above them. This is only one 

 of many good runs which have come from the Sneep coverts 

 in recent years, and as a matter of fact many others have been 

 described in the columns of the Field. The Sneep is famous 

 for its romantic scenery, and the bend of the stream called the 

 Horse Shoe is remarkably beautiful, and a great place for 

 picnics in the summer. Above it, on the Durham side of the 

 stream, are the most formidable head of earths in the hunt. 

 These are on the wooded hillside, below Muggleswick Church, 

 and are a labyrinth of rocks, with various entrances, and of 

 such a size that they cannot be properly stopped. One and 

 often two litters of cubs are bred there every spring, and 

 instead of stopping in the usual way being resorted to, fires 

 are lighted at either end of the earths during the night before 

 hunting, and a watchman installed, who feeds the fires and 

 keeps them going until the following afternoon. The curious 

 thing about the an*angement is; that though foxes will try 

 the earths constantly during a hunting day, and in nineteen 



