THE TYNEDALE COUNTRY. 145 



particular corner of the Tynedale is well over twenty miles — 

 some of it nearly thirty — from my quarters, and no railway 

 available. Some years ago (and just before the coming of 

 motor-cars) I was frequently in the middle portion of the 

 Monday country, and as far north as Hallington and Kirk- 

 heaton ; but even those meets involved sending horses to Cor- 

 bridge overnight, and a drive of eleven miles, plus a hack of 

 ten miles in the morning. If the day was a long one and 

 horses were tired, they had to be left at Corbridge a second 

 night, and, in fact, too much road work was involved. Meets 

 at " The Kirks and the Caps," as a Tynedale man on my 

 side of the country used to call them, became out of the ques- 

 tion, and here it may be mentioned that throughout the centre 

 of the Tynedale country there are remarkably few inns where 

 the accommodation for horses can be relied upon. There is an 

 inn at Stamfordham, in the Friday country, which, in com- 

 pany with the Master of the Braes of Derwent, I used fre- 

 quently for a season or two; but to this place also horses had 

 to be sent overnight, and we had to drive sixteen miles in the 

 morning to reach our horses, and much of the ground was 

 very hilly, involving slow progress. All these things are altered 

 in these days of motor-cars; but as regards the Tynedale 

 country, and reaching the northern part of it from a point 

 eight miles beyond its southern boundary, the question of 

 horses is even worse than it was, for stables at many of the 

 small country inns have been turned into garages, hostlers 

 have become chauffeurs, and even where a stable remains there 

 may be no forage. Indeed, it is now a difficult matter — at 

 times — to procure a drink of meal and water for a tired horse 

 at a village inn, and many times in recent years I have bought 

 meal at a village shop, and mixed it with water procured at 

 the same place. This, however, has occurred more often 

 when indulging in a summer driving tour than after hunting, 

 for in the latter case, if meal is necessary, it can almost always 

 be procured at the house of some hunting man, where one calls 

 on the homeward road. 



As regards Capheaton, I have more frequently seen hounds 

 run there — generally from the Belsay coverts — than I have 

 been present when the coverts have been drawn. Capheaton is 

 placed in a grand grass country, and foxes found there must 



