152 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



appointments, for several reasons, the chief of which is that 

 hounds so frequently reach the best country in the hunt when 

 they are not expected and when there is no one to head foxea, 

 no motors or traps on the road, and, in f aot, when the country- 

 side is as quiet as it is on a non-hunting day. Then, too, 

 though fields are large when hounds meet at Bywell or Howdeu 

 Dene, they are much smaller in the North Tyne valley, which, 

 as far as my experience goes, is a capital scenting country. 

 Indeed, I have long since come to the conclusion that the 

 western half of the Tynedale country can hardly be beaten 

 as far as its scenting properties are concerned. Much of it is 

 old pasture that is never mown, and frequently there is long 

 grass in scores of inclosures all through the winter, while at 

 times there are traces of heather. The land, indeed, is not 

 so highly farmed as the country further east, and this is pro- 

 bably because so much of it. is at a considerable height above 

 sea level; anyhow, it is most delectable hunting ground, in 

 which, by the way, a slow horse is of no more use on five days 

 out of six than it would be in Leicestershire or Northants. 

 The Tynedale are a, remarkably fast pack, and there are almost 

 no woodlands to pvill them up and cause slower hunting. Of 

 course scent varies, as it does elsewhere, and on the high 

 plateau the wind sometimes interferes with sport; but if the 

 conditions are anything like right there is always pace in a 

 Tynedale hunt, and common-bred horses are very quickly 

 half a mile behind. The best hunters that money can buy are, 

 in fact, what are wanted for this country, and I have little 

 hesitation in saying that the field is, on the whole, remarkably 

 well mounted. 



The Friday country used to attract the biggest fields of the 

 week, and I imagine it still does so, and until a few years 

 ago the fine open country used to begin within three 

 miles of the centre of Newcastle-on-Tyne — on the north-west 

 of the town. Indeed, if one left Newcastle by the old coach- 

 ing road which runs by Ponteland and Belsay, and forms the 

 boundary between the Tynedale and Moipeth countries, it took 

 less than three miles to clear the town, and there were — little 

 more than a, dozen years agO' — no suburbs on that side. Indeed, 

 from the old kennels of the late Mr. Fred Lamb's harriers at 

 the Cowgate there was the little hamlet of Kenton half a mile 



