THE BRAES OF DERWENT COUNTRY. 115 



was by a visit from the hounds, though in the latter ca.se 

 there might be hundreds of men standing about on the higher 

 parts of his land. When hounds are done with any ooverti or 

 group of coverts in a colliery neighbourhood, and move off to 

 another part of thei country, the crowd of foot people 

 inperceptibly melts away, and in half an hour's time the 

 country will be as quiet as on an ordinary day. There are 

 perhaps half a dozen regular foot followers with the Braes of 

 Derwent, all of whom come from the ranks of miners; but 

 these make a business of hunting, especially on Saturdays, 

 when in normal times the pits are not working, and these 

 men walk long distances, and even travel by train to the 

 station nearest a meet, and follow hounds throughout the 

 day. These men, as will be understood, have considerable 

 knowledge of hunting, and are frequently puppy walkers, 

 while, if they happen to live near a covert, they will do all 

 they can toi keep that covert quiet, especially if it contains a 

 breeding earth. 



It is, I think, a fact that in a hunting country where there 

 is industrialism also the hunt is helped in many little ways 

 by certain of the wage-earners. The modus opercmdi is 

 perhaps not very easy to explain, buti both in the North 

 Durham and the Braes of Derwent country there are miners 

 who do a great, deal to further the sport., and for noi reward 

 beyond the feeling that they are in some degree helping the 

 hunt. As puppy walkers, amateur watchers, and occasional 

 earth stoppers — especially when ground has fallen in owing to 

 colliery workings — they do a great deal for the hunt in the 

 course of the year, and if anything happens (possibly with 

 regard to foxes) in any particular neighbourhood which 

 affects the hunt in the slightest degree someone visits the 

 kennels at the earliest possible moment with information v/hich 

 at times is of value. When hunting in a peculiarly agricul- 

 tural district, I have seen labourers who did not even turn 

 their heads when fox, hounds, and " field " passed over the 

 inclosure in which they were working; but, as far as I have 

 been able to judge, the average north country working man, 

 whether a miner, an agricultural labourer, or employed in 

 quite another ca.pacity, has a certain amount of sport in his 

 composition. 



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