134 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



Mr. Ramsey used to do it frequently, and I know tliat he was 

 in tlie habit of following the Border on foot when he was 

 nearer eiighty than seventy years of age. I ha.ve also a much 

 earlier recolleotion of Bellingham than that, for I was at the 

 agriciiltural show held there in September, 1873, and rode in 

 the huntier jumping class, and from that day to- this I have 

 never seen a better trial ground. The class was for hunters 

 of any age, and, I think, no condition as to weight; but after 

 the horses had been inspected by the judges they were sent 

 over a, short, perfecitly natural course of half a dozen fences, 

 and tiheir fencing was taken into consideration before the 

 prizes were awarded. My mount was a, very good hunter, 

 owned by the late Mr. Percy Taylor — a son of the late Mr. 

 Hugh Taylor, of Chipohase Castle — who at that time was 

 living at the Bay Horse Inn at Stamfordham, and possessed 

 as fine a lot of hunters as were then to be found in the north 

 of England. 



Indeed, these horses were sold at auction for very high prices 

 a year or two later, and one of them — a horse named Simoai, 

 which ]Mr. Taylor had boughti from the Spraggons of Nafferton 

 — ^was bought by the late Sir William Eden for 300gs., and 

 some years afterwards Sir William, when Mast.er of the South 

 Durham, told me Simon was the best hunter he had ever 

 owned. I do- not remember that Simon was at the Bellingham 

 show in question, but Mr. Taylor had at least three in the 

 entry, and entertained a party ati the Bellingham Hotel, of 

 which the late James Hedley, the coursing judge, was land- 

 lord. During the evening which preceded the show there was 

 a good deal of jubilation, the proceedings culminating in a bet 

 being made by James Hedley that he would ride a horse he 

 had in his stable over the gat© between the stable yard and 

 a stack yard behind his premises then and there. The horse 

 was duly brought, outi, lighted lanterns were stuspended at 

 either end of the gate, and Mr. Hedley mountied, and the 

 horse popped over as easily as if he was jumping a sheep 

 hurdle. But. in dismounting the rider, who was a big, burly 

 man, slipped up as he touched the ourbstonei, with t.he result 

 that he sprained his ankle so badly that he had to atte^nd the 

 show on the following day in a pony cart, and came in for a 



