114 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



was found tliere about six o'clock and driven away, houndsi 

 having gone home more than an hour before. Hounds wetre 

 never touched except when the fox was headed, and then the 

 lady who had headed him was able to say where he had 

 gone, and they hiti it off in a moment. During the latter part 

 of this afternoon hunt the field fined down to lees than half a 

 dozen, the pace being too good for any but fresh horses with 

 plenty of breeding. 



The north-east quarter of the Braes of Derwent country is 

 productive of a lot of sport, and, in fact, it. shares the honours 

 in the matter of providing good hunts with the south-western 

 quarter. The Healey country on the north-west and the lower 

 part of the Derwent Valley, say, from the Pont to Gibside 

 inclusive, are so thickly wooded that much of the hunting 

 is covert work; but the north-eastern corner of the hunt is 

 remarkably open, as is the country between the Shotley or the 

 Sneep Coverts and Minsteracres. Blaydon Burn was always a 

 popular meet, but hounds have hereabouts for many years been 

 handicapped by the great number ol foot people who seize 

 the points of vantage, confine the movements, and thwart the 

 intentions of foxes, and yet who are justi as keen on the sport 

 as the members of the hunt. These men are mostly miners not 

 at work at the moment, and their presence in really great 

 numbers in this, as in one or two other parts of the countiy, 

 not only testifies to the popularity of the sporti, but brings a 

 democratic element into the hunting field, which in these 

 rather peculiar times is undoubtedly all for the best. Anyhov/, 

 there is a sympathetic feeling of considerable intensity between 

 the regular hunting people and the foot crowd, which is only 

 in evidence at certain east country meets of the pack, and 

 the farmers in this particular corner ol the world are so 

 accustomed to trespass that they do not seem toi mind. As a 

 matter of fact, the crowd collects in groups where there is 

 a really good view, and remains pretty well in one placj, 

 unless, indeed, a fox is killed or run to ground near it. I 

 am inclined to think that these crowds do not' damage the 

 fences, and certainly they cannot hurt the pa&ture land in 

 winter time; not long ago> a large farmer, whose holding lies 

 between a colliery and a covert, told me that he was far more 

 troubled by the blackberry pickers in September than he ever 



