Excerpt from The Sedgefield Country in the Seventies and Eighties: With the Reminiscences of a First Whipper-In

HE desire to assist, in his declining years, an old servant, who for fifteen seasons worked hard in the hunting field, combined with a frequently expressed wish on the part of many who participated in the sport during the time that John - or as he was always termed, Jack Bevans acted as first whipper-in to the South Durham fox-hounds, that some Of his quaint sayings and doings should be collected as a memento Of pleasant days spent by them in the hunting field, prompted the writer to undertake this little work, which has been carried out at spare intervals, when time and circumstances permitted. Owing to the pressure of other work, it has Of necessity been performed somewhat hurriedly, but when Opportunity occurred, Bevans' own account Of the various incidents in his career have been committed to paper exactly as he narrated them; the language made use of has, in every case, been that of his own adoption, varying as it may appear from time to time; but the keener the interest he took in any event during its narration, the more natural became his manner of expressing himself, especially when he was unable to restrain a pardonable excitement in recording some unusually funny adventure in the field, or occurrence which appealed to his ever predominant sense of humour.

On his retirement from the hunting field in 1889, a sum of 69 133. 6d. Was collected on his behalf in small amounts from members of the hunt, friends, and tenant farmers, with whom he was always a great favourite; with a portion Of this 13s. 4d.) he was made a free life member of that admirable institution, the Hunt Servants' Benefit Society, entitling him to a weekly allowance Of 15/ ih case of illness or accident, and his family to 150 on his death, and the remainder has been doled out to him annually in sums of 2 at a time, or thereabouts; the last and final payment having just been made.

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