More than a hundred years ago the farmers in the neighbourhood of Roxby, in Cleveland, kept amongst them some Hounds which were called together on hunting days, and hunted, for the most part, on foot. MR. A. E. PEASE, in his interesting and exhaustive book, “The Cleveland Hounds,” says: “I believe that in the old leases of the property at Roxby owned by the TURTON family, a clause was always inserted obliging the tenant to keep a Foxhound, and to hunt him till May-day, in order to destroy the moor Foxes during that time of the year when they were likely to commit depredations among the lambs on the moors. It was also customary on this and other estates to provide each tenant that hunted, kept a Hound, or walked a puppy, with a red coat every year.”

The followers of the “Roxby” Hounds occasionally made a day and night of it when away hunting, and sometimes two days and nights. These Hounds were afterwards called the “Roxby and Cleveland” Hounds, and at one time hunted Hare and Fox on alternate days. They were all light coloured Hounds, the better to be seen on the dark moorlands. The following is the first verse of an old song descriptive of a great run with the “Cleveland Foxhounds,” (but evidently not the pack from which the present “Cleveland” sprang,) on 29th January, 1785. It seems just possible that the distance named is a little exaggerated, though, in another account, it is, I believe, put down as sixty three miles:

In 1817, MR. JOHN ANDREW was appointed master. The Hounds were taken to Saltburn, then but a fishing hamlet on the sea-shore, where, for more than fifty years, the management was in the hands of the ANDREW family. They hunted foxes in the winter, and, with a few of the old Hounds, otters in the summer. A few years after this the “Roxby” was dropped from the name of the pack, and they became the “Cleveland.” JOHN ANDREW hunted them until 1835, assisted by his son, JOHN ANDREW, JUN., who took them when his father gave them up, and was master until 1855, when they were taken by his son, TOM, who had them until 1870, having, previous to becoming master, acted as huntsman to his father. TOM, altogether, hunted the Hounds for thirty-three years, having many grand runs, and sometimes hunting when the snow was deep on the ground. The season of 1870 the Hounds were hunted by MR. WATSON DIXON, the hon. secretary to the hunt, and then MR. J. T. WHARTON, of Skelton Castle, became master. MR. WHARTON resigned at the end of his third season, and was succeeded by MR. A. H. T. NEWCOMEN, of Kirkleatham Hall, who kept them for five years. MR. JOHN PROUD, of Yearby, then accepted the mastership, and retained it until 1886, when he resigned. MR. W. H. A. WHARTON, (son of MR. J. T. WHARTON, who had previously been master of the “Hurworth,”) then took them and is now master and hunts the Hounds.

The “Cleveland” is, in many parts, a very rough country, but there have been many good runs over it. On one or two occasions, if not more, Hounds have been lost by going over the high cliffs on the coast and being dashed to pieces on the rocks below. In one instance, I believe, the fox and one or two hounds were found together, dead, on the shore.