THE TYNEDALE COUNTRY. 135 



great deal of chaff. In tJie hunter competition the first feme© 

 out of the show field was a high thorn fence, th.e weaker parts 

 of which had been strengthened with timber, and immediately 

 beyond was a cart track some 14ft. or more wide. This cart 

 track had been newly covered with ashes or soft coal and waa 

 very black, and my horse, a most impetuous goer, flew iti in 

 each of the two rounds he did, and this probably prevented 

 him from taking the prize. Other fences were a bank and a 

 Stone wall, and there was one artificial jump in front, of the 

 sit.ands. My horse never touched a twig, but the judges pre- 

 ferred an up-and-down cantering cob, who popped over each 

 obstacle with not an inch to' spare, and who jumped on to the 

 black road instead of over it. But the point I wish toi em- 

 phasise is that in this class for hunters;, in which all the horses 

 had to jump, real hunters were shown, and not the animals 

 which at th.at day went the round of th.e shows for the jumping 

 prizes aJone. The same sort of thing has been done in South 

 Wales and O'Ue or two other places, and in recent Olympia 

 shows there have been classes in which hunters had to' jump ; 

 but as a ride all hunters' prizes at all the principal shows are 

 given for horses which have not to jump when shown, and 

 whose jumping ability has, in fact, to be taken on trust. Th.e 

 subject is too big to be tackled just now, and would hardly 

 be in place in this volume; but it is perhaps worth pointing 

 outi that at local country shows the Bellingham plan of forty- 

 nine years ago might well be adopted. 



Mr. Nicholas Maughan gave up the Tynedale country in 

 1854, and was succeeded by Major Robert Bell, who held 

 ofiice until 1867. Then came Mr. Hunter Allgood, of Nun- 

 wick, for a couple of seasons, and he was followed for two 

 siea«)ng by the joint mastership of Mr. George Fenwick and 

 Mr. Edward Riddell. In 1871 Mr. Fenwick went on single- 

 handed, and remained in ofiice until 1883, when the present 

 Master, Mr. J. C. Straker, sxicceeded him. This is the histo'ry 

 of the hunt, as regards its Masters, of the last, sixty years, 

 and from what I have seen and from v;hat I have heard, I am 

 inclined to think that no hunt in the country has carried on 

 its operations in a smoother or more satisfactory manner, or 

 maintained a higher average of sport. During all this period 



