94 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



village near it, while on the estate are several hundred acres 

 of woodlands, while for many years past there has always been 

 a fine supply of foxes. The estate is a large one, and its 

 southern side, between the river Derwent and the crown of 

 the hill, consists of large pastures of grazing land, with no 

 coverts except the whin at Birkenside, which I have men- 

 tioned, but round the hall and park, and on all the north side 

 of the estate, are numerous plantations, two capital gorse 

 coverts, and two long and rather narrow wooded gills. If 

 foxes goi the righti way asi good sport is forthcoming froim 

 Minsteracres as from any other part of the hunt, but to 

 appreciate hunting about Minstieracreis and Healey (which 

 adjoins it oin the north-west) coujitry one shoiuld have that 

 knowledge of the district which only comes of long acquaint- 

 ance, and this is absolutely necessary if one is to remain 

 with hounds. The fact is that in this part of the Braes 

 of Derwent hunt there are a chain of coverts which extend 

 from the Tyne Valley to the crown of the hill five or six miles 

 away, and though the chain is broken in several places, many 

 of the coverts are so close together that those who are not 

 well up with hounds may easily lose touch with the pack. 



But when this happens it is because a woodland fox is 

 being hunted, and there is hereabouts so much woodland that 

 the sort of fox I have in mind is not necessarily a fox which 

 hangs to his own quarters, but rather one which travels 

 far, and knowing the country well, prefers to run through 

 the many coverts to going into the open. Thus the Minster- 

 acres Gill is nearly two miles long, and is joined to the Kellas 

 plantations at its western end, and a fox will take hounds 

 the length of the gill, circle through the two huge Kellas 

 woods, and by crossing the Lead road reach Healey Dene, 

 another long gill, with supplementary spurs, separated by only 

 a couple of fields from Healey Big Wood, a plantation of 

 several hundred acres, much beloved of the vulpine tribei, 

 but much of which has been recently out' down. And from 

 Healey Big Wood he can reach Minsteracres Gill again 

 without being in the open for more than five or ten 

 minutes at a time, and repeat the same tactics if so inclined. 

 But such a round as I have described — and I have seen many 

 similar hunts — takes a full hour to complete even when scent 



