“Draw rein and think, bold hunter halt,
Sly Reynard let go free,
To ride ahint yon full black brush
Means death to you or me. 
No luck can come so get you home
And there tie up your steed,
Yon black brush is ye devil wand
It scents ye grave to feed.”

The Sinnington hounds have long been famous in the North Riding, and their history goes back to the earliest days of fox-hunting in these parts.  The Bilsdale being the only pack that claims an earlier origin.  William Marshall, the agricultural writer (mentioned a few pages further on), hunted with the Sinnington pack for many years, and Jack Parker, huntsman of last century, was a very notable character whose witty anecdotes are still remembered.  The silver-mounted horn illustrated here bearing the inscription “Sinnington Hunt 1750” is preserved at Pickering.  Until about twenty-five years ago the pack was “trencher fed,” the hounds being scattered about in twos and threes at the various farms and houses in the neighbourhood.  The kennels are now at Kirby Moorside.

[Illustration:  THE OLD HORN OF THE SINNINGTON HUNT.  It is dated 1750 on one of the silver bands.] A curious “Dandy Horse” race was held at Pickering on June 22, 1813.  Calvert describing it in his quaint way says:  “On this day, Tuesday, June 22, 1813, Robert Kitching, Hungate, Pickering and S. Hutchinson of Helmsley, did bring off the wager they had laid of ten guineas apiece for their men to race from Pickering to Helmsley astride each of his master’s dandy horse, which is a machine having two wheels in a line afixed with forks to a support beam upon which there resteth a saddle so high from the ground that the rider hath a grip on the ground, for it be by the pressure of the foot upon the ground that this new horse is shoved along, there be also a handle to hold by with a soft pad, this is for to rest the chest against as to gain a greater grip with the feet, the two Gladiators started fair away at ten of the clock, there been then come together from all parts upwards it was held of two thousand people, many on horseback arriving for to see this novel race from start to finish.”  However, when the opponents had covered about half the distance, one of them overstrained himself and gave up and the other admitted that “he was ommaist at the far end” so that the crowd assembled at Helmsley to see the finish waited in vain for the riders.

Although Pickering is several miles from the sea some of the more important people of the town were for many years closely interested in the whaling industry.  It was about the year 1775, that Mr Nicholas Piper and some of his friends made a bold financial venture in the purchase of the Henrietta which became in time one of the most successful Greenland whalers sailing from the port of Whitby.  Some of the ship’s logs and also an account book are preserved by Mr Loy at Keld Head Hall, and from them I have been able to obtain some interesting facts.  For a year or two the ship yielded no profits, but in 1777 there was a sum of L640 to be divided between the partners in the enterprise.  Gradually the profits increased until they produced an annual total of about L2000.