THE TYNEDALE COUNTRY. 149 



monotonous, and somewhat comic, for more than once the fox 

 was viewed nearly half a mile ahead. The hunt in question 

 was with the North Durham, and it began close to Burn 

 Hill with a fox which jumped up in the heather. He was 

 quickly into the Stuartfield Lodge plantation, but when he 

 reached the lane at Eliza he stuck to it to the Five Lane Ends, 

 ran inside the wall of Woodlands Park for half a mile, and 

 then took to the lane again, almost to Browney Bank. Then 

 we had a bit of cross country to Bells House, but the fox 

 ran the road again from the Monkey's Nest for quite a mile, 

 and did the same thing in the lane alongside Weather Hill 

 Covert. He was caught in the Shrubbery at Brancepeth, and 

 as he had lost half his brush there was an opinion that he 

 stuck to the roads because he had no steerage worth the name. 

 The Tynedale Wednesday is as a rule in the valley of the 

 Tyne proper, between Horsley and Corbridge, or in the North 

 Tyne; but in either case the good country is so near that 

 hounds very often reach it. Horsley Wood, now the most 

 easterly of the riverside coverts — for Wall bottle Dene has too 

 much population round it — is a very fine covert, but it is 

 more frequently drawn — in my experience — on a Friday. It 

 is a certain find, and at times foxes rather hang to it; but 

 if they once reach the higher ground near Horsley village 

 they may go anywhere, and anyhow they are in the best riding 

 country in the hunt. West of Horsley Wood is Whittle Dene, 

 and two miles further west the Bywell coverts, owned by 

 Lord Allendale. Whittle Dene is a long, winding, and rather 

 narrow gill, which has wonderful lying at the north end, and 

 is a very foxy spot. Just north of it is a whin covert on 

 Nafferton Farm, but many of the Whittle Dene foxes go 

 straight to Bywell and vice versa. There are two particularly 

 good oovertsi at Bywell, one on either side of the road which 

 goes north from the bridge over the Tyne, and these always 

 hold foxes. North of them are some small coverts round 

 Newton Hall, which come into a Bywell draw, while further 

 west is Styford, where there is a long plantation parallel with 

 the river, and the Square Wood a field or two north. From 

 this Square Wood I saw two eight-mile points in one season 

 not many years ago. One fox ran by Newton, Luker House, 

 Angus's Whin, Matfen, and Great Ryall to the Moot Law, 



