THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 101 



from Broom£Jiield.s. The fox was viewed just in froiifc a few 

 minutes before hounds were stopped, but he was going on to 

 Sand Edge Moor, and it was so dark that to' gO' on would 

 probably have meant losing hounds. In this hunt a cob, out 

 at grass, joined in shortly after the Derwent was crossed, and 

 remained with the leading horseman over many miles of 

 country, jumping the walls like a stag, but not allowing any- 

 one to go near him. When all was over hei submitted to be 

 caught quietly enough, and luckily someone had noticed the 

 place where he joined the hunt, so there was no difnoulty about 

 taking him home. In fact, when a. whipper-in arrived with, 

 him long after dark his absence had not been detected by the 

 farmer who owned him. 



North of Watch Hill and Fotherley Gill are coverts at 

 Hindley Hall, and a., chain of plantations owned by Lord Allen- 

 dale, which extend alongside the River Tyne from Stocksifield 

 to Riding Mill, and which at their western end are not widely 

 separated from the Healey plantations. In this district of 

 the hunt there is perhaps more woodland hunting than in any 

 other part, but these Tyneside plantations have lots of dry 

 lying, are well off for rides, and always hold foxes. In 

 Broomley Hope — the biggest covert of the chain — there are 

 main earths where cubs are always bred, and the little wood 

 beyond, named Cat Dene, is also an almost certain find, and, 

 as the field are generally on the east side of the covert^ Vv'hen 

 it is drawn, foxes break south and frequently go far afield. 

 Indeed, two very fine hunts from Cat Dene have taken place 

 in recent seasons. In one, at which I was not present, the 

 fox was killed (I believe) near Allansford, and in the other in 

 the open field near Browns Bog, half a mile from Shotley 

 Field. West of Cat Dene is Shilford Wood, also a good covert., 

 from which foxes break as a rule to the south, in full view 

 of the field, and farther south, some two miles from the river, 

 is Broomley Fell, a long, v.'ooded ravine, and a really good 

 covert, but not very often drawn, simply because there is no 

 meeting place very near it and hounds generally run through 

 it from Healey Big Wood, or from the riverside covertsi just 

 named, and which are drawn after meets at Hindley Hall 

 or Hindley cross roads. One other covert on this north side 

 of the country remains to be mentioned, and this is composed 



