THE MORPETH COUNTRY. 165 



Tarious hunts. The Morpeth and Tynedale countries were 

 formed, and that formation has been held toi ever since. Mr. 

 Nicholas Maughan had been hunting part ol the present Tyne- 

 dale country for some years before the final change was made, 

 and possibly the " Ridley " hounds, as they were called when 

 the kennels were at Belsay, did not go so far south-weati as Sir 

 Matthew White Ridley had done, but about this I am not 

 certain, and perhaps what occurred nearly seventy 

 years ago is not of great moment just now. But in 1854, 

 when Major Bell became Master of the Tynedale — as it now 

 is — Mr. John Cookson, of Meldon, took the Morpeth, and 

 the boundary was fixed at the main road which runs from 

 Newcastle through Ponteland and Belsay to Cambo, and I 

 am inclined to think that the best of the Morpeth country 

 lies between this high road and the Newcastle to Morpeth 

 coach road. This is a district of sound grass of similar 

 character to the best of the Tynedale country, where the 

 inclosures are for the most part large, and the fences either 

 level with the field or on a small bank. It is, in fact, essen- 

 tially a riding country, and all the northern portion of it is 

 free from population. At the southern end of this district 

 there are various collieries, and there are more east of the 

 Newcastle to Morpeth road, but all the northern and western 

 side of the hunt is fine open country, slightly undulating 

 south of the river Wansbeck, and more hilly between the 

 Wansbeck and Coquet — especially on the north-west. The 

 Wansbeck flows right through the centre of the country, and 

 east of Morpeth are several miles of wooded banks, to which 

 foxes hang at times. Indeed, I spent a morning there with 

 hounds a few years ago, and though there were foxes 

 innumerable, we never went far from the banks. There is also 

 the river Pont, some half dozen miles south of the Wans- 

 beck, and this stream, which is only a brook in the western 

 part of the Tynedale country, becomes a formidable affair 

 east of the village of Ponteland, and it also has a mile or 

 two of wooded banks in the neighbourhood of Hartford 

 Bridge. Between the Wansbeck and the Coquet there is some 

 plough land, especially near the sea, and also one or two large 

 collieries; but the land near Bothal — famous as a great 

 coursing ground — is mostly grass, and as a matter of fact it is 



