THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Once you get inside Bilsdale you realise you are in no ordinary land.  Bilsdale has a life and character all its own; likewise a celebrated hunt.  In Bilsdale there are no social distinctions.  Everyone is of one glorious family, rich man, poor man, beggar-man and poacher – if there are any such!  But a man is expected to be able to sit on a horse and smell a fox.

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Bilsdale East moor in the rainy season is a beast, covered, as it is, with a dense growth of very deep heather, all too frequently interspersed with bogs and “blind” water-logged holes.  And yet, gruelling as my own crossing was, I enjoyed every yard of it in the bright morning air; though I should not care to be benighted on those moors. Even in daylight they are apt to be a little sinister.

Brown/Tramping