138 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



been many great hunts in the countory of which I have no 

 knowledge. As my readers will understand, this book is 

 for the most part a personal recoil ectioii, but I ha.ve 

 Ertioh a liking for the Tynedale, and ha,ve such pleasant re- 

 collections of the sport I have seen within its boxindaries, that 

 I feel constrained to give, to the best of my ability, some 

 description of the country, if only for the benefit of those 

 hunting people who have heard of, but do not. know, the 

 lobality. And I also bear in mind that, so far as I know, very 

 lititle has ever been written about the Tynedale hunt or it& 

 country. 



It is a moot point whether the Monday or the Friday 

 country of the Tynedale is the besti. Both are very good 

 indeed, and if foxes go the right way I am inclined to think 

 that the best riding lines are in the centre of the country, 

 and rather on the eastern side of the centre, but as a matter 

 of fact foxes from every part of the country often reach its 

 centre, and at times it happens — not by any means infre- 

 quently — that foxes found quite near the riverside will leave 

 the valley and travel over the very best of lines. Where the 

 eastern side of the country has a pull — purely from a riding 

 point of view — ^is that the country is flatter and less undulating 

 than it is in the north. Even so it is a high-lying plain or 

 plateau, but as one goes west, the country becomes more un- 

 dulating, is higher above sea level, and occasionally steep 

 placies are to be found, as for example the north sidei of Grind- 

 stone Law, and the rise from the valley beyond to Great Ryall 

 and the Moot Law. Dealing with the Monday hunting first, 

 Aydon Dene is generally drawn after hounds have met at 

 Stagshaw House or the kennels and this dene, though it does 

 not reach the river Tyne, dips down the country to within 

 a mile of it, and is, to the best of my knowledge, the only low- 

 lying cover in the Monday country. There is also a good 

 covert at Aydon White House, but this is well up above the 

 dene, and on the edge of the plateau. Coles or Cowls Whin, 

 not far away, was a. famous covert when I first knew th© 

 Tynedale, but the v/hin has now disappeared, for it was also 

 a fir plantation, and the fir trees have grown up. There 

 is also' a whin covert on Stagshaw Common, which is not 

 a hundred yards distant from the kennels. This whin is 



