THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 99 



important coverts. And from the ridge of the hill — whers 

 one is in the Braes of Derwent country — it is possible to see a 

 great deal of the Haydon country when looking westward, the 

 Tynedale, Morpeth, Coquetdale, North Tyne, Border, and 

 Percy countries when looking northward, and the North and 

 South Durham, and Lord Zetlands when looking southwards. 

 Probably also one's sight when looking to the south travels 

 into the Hurworth and Bedale countries, for the old race- 

 course at Richmond, with its landmark of " wooded 

 height," is clearly discernible, and the eye can travel well 

 beyond it on either side. Indeed, local knowledge is to the 

 effect that objects and places can be locaticd, both north and 

 south, which are fifty miles away, and I myself have seen 

 the Cheviot Hills on one side, then, by turning round, Rich- 

 mond racecourse on the other, not once, but a. score of times. 

 If one is shooting up here or riding out with hounds in the 

 summer, the views are always an attraction, and one notices 

 them e?i route to a meet of hounds, but during a hunting' day 

 one is apt tO' forget all about them, and I remember a visitor 

 from the West Cumberland Hunt being soi much taken up 

 with the view from the top of Grey Mare Hill — the next 

 point to Watch Hill — that his horsei walked into a drinking 

 pond by the side of the lane while he was taking in the 

 wonderful panorama. Whenever I have had time to look 

 on a hunting day I am always struck by the appearance of 

 the Tynedale country, which stretches out to the north in 

 a grass plateau of about twenty miles either way. At the top 

 of the hill I am writing about one is five miles above the 

 River Tyne and several hundred feet above the plateau. This 

 makes the rise (in the Tynedale country) from the Tyne to 

 the higher ground appear to be much slighter than it readly 

 is, bvit. the great beauties of the country from a. hunting 

 point of view are clearly discernible, for there is an absence 

 of woodlands, an absence of railways, of all signs of popula- 

 tion and of big villages, and, in fact, little is visible except 

 large enclosures of grassland. It looks what it is, an ideal 

 hunting country, and, though one can hardly see them, one 

 knows that there is scattered about a fine supply of small, 

 well-kept gorse coverts exactly where they are wanted. 



The country round Watch Hill is all graas, some of it rather 



