THE BR-XES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 107 



brougiiti into tJie covert from the north side of the Derwent 

 it is almost impossible to drive him through. It has been 

 done, but vctj occasionally, and I can think of only two 

 fine hunts which went right through Gibside. The first, at 

 which I was not present, occurred some fifteen years ago 

 with a fox found at Craw crook Whin, near "Ryton, and within 

 a mile of the Tyne. This fox crossed the country to the 

 Derwent, and went right through Gibside to the Ravens- 

 worth coverts, hounds making a seven-mile point. The other 

 case I havei in mind was a, fox from the Ponti, which was hunted 

 to Gibside, and then right back to^ the Pont, and killed on 

 the main earths, which were, of course, stopped. The Ravens- 

 worth coverts, three or four miles ea&t. of Gibside, are not 

 drawn in these days; but there is a covert, between the two 

 places called the Carroti Beds, and onei or twoi little srpinneys 

 in the same neighbourhood, ati which a fox is occasionally 

 found. Before mentioning the coverts in this neighbourhood 

 on the opposite side of the river I may state that there is a 

 bit of outlying country, belonging to the Braes of Derwent 

 Hunt, some four or five miles due south of Gibside, with 

 coverts at Causey, Beamish Park, and Urpeth. The Causey 

 covert is a picturesque glen, or would be picturesque if it 

 were not for the fact that it is situated in a. colliery neighbour- 

 hood. Not long ago I saw a print of " Causey Arch, in the 

 County of Durham," in a printseller's window in High 

 Holbom, and this was dated more than a hundred years back, 

 and depicts the aforesaid arch, which was really a waggon- 

 way or tramline used for carrying coal. The covert is of no 

 value in these days, buti the coverts round Beamish Hall are 

 excellent, and, as a rule, well foxed. Hounds meet at Beamish 

 Hall once a year, and the trouble usually isi that the foxes 

 know noi country and never go far afield. I have seen one 

 fair day from Beamish in perhaps half a dozen visits, but there 

 were always plenty of foxes to hunt. Urpeth lies even further 

 south and east, and is sometimes visited on a Beamish day ; but 

 the country all round is too populous for hunting, and 

 Beamish, with its deer park and well-kept coverts, is really an 

 oasis in a desert of coal mining. 



The country east of the kennels and north of the Derwent 

 is perhaps as productive of sport, as any in the hunt, in spite 



