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One thing, which had struck me at once, but that I had not told Dick, for fear of exciting him too much, was that Bedlington was the large town nearest to Eldon Hall, the Earl of Cranmere's seat, the place the mysterious, unseen man in the house in Grafton Street had asked Jack Osborne about while he lay bound upon the bed; also that February 28th was the date when Cranmere's eldest son would come of age, on which day a week's festivities at Eldon would begin and festivities at Eldon were events to be remembered, I had been told.
"He probably knows what he looks like, though," Preston answered, laughing he was thinking of his impersonation of the Earl, and his wonderful make-up. "I am not invited either, professionally or otherwise, so that Mr. Berrington and I had better go to Bedlington and put our heads together there, for something is going to happen at Eldon Hall, Osborne, you may take my word for that.
He had laid down or superintended the railways at Burradon, Mount Moor, Springwell, Bedlington, Hetton, and Darlington, besides improving those at Killingworth, South Moor, and Derwent Crook. He had constructed fifty-five steam-engines, of which sixteen were locomotives. Some of these had been sent to France.
At Seghill and at Bedlington I have slept in their cottages and have been welcomed to their tables, and I have a vivid memory of one evening at Seghill, after a lecture, when my host, himself a miner, invited about a dozen of his comrades to supper to meet me; the talk ran on politics, and I soon found that my companions knew more of English politics, had a far shrewder notion of political methods, and were, therefore, much better worth talking to, than most of the ordinary men met at dinner parties "in society."
Nor are the sterner sides of caravan life to be forgotten- -the calamity at the brow of a steep hill, where a nasty turn made the steady old wheeler for once lose his head and his legs; the hard-fought battle over a half-side of bacon between the Bedlington terrier and the writer when that mistaken dog showed a marked preference for the stolen Wiltshire over the partridge bone of charity.
"Well, four days went by, and then in the Morning Post of February 7th the second advertisement appeared: "Rlxt. ex. sroehnel. 28. Zcokk. zbpl. qc. Ptfrd. Avnsp. Hvfbl. Ucaqkoggwx. "The code was the same as the first, and I deciphered it quite easily. Here it is," and he read from a bit of paper he held in his hand: "Date is February 28. Shall stay at Mount Royal Hotel, Bedlington. Dusky Fowl."
COAT Hard, with close bottom, and not lying flat to sides. COLOUR Dark blue, blue and tan, liver, liver and tan, sandy, or sandy and tan. HEIGHT About 15 inches to 16 inches. WEIGHT Dogs about 24 pounds; bitches about 22 pounds. GENERAL APPEARANCE He is a light-made, lathy dog, but not shelly. There is a tendency nowadays towards excess of size in the Bedlington.
At Seghill and at Bedlington I have slept in their cottages and have been welcomed to their tables, and I remember one evening at Seghill, after a lecture, that my host invited about a dozen miners to supper to meet me; the talk ran on politics, and I soon found that my companions knew more of English politics and had a far shrewder notion of political methods than I had found among the ordinary "diners-out" in "society". They were of the "uneducated" class despised by "gentlemen" and had not the vote, but politically they were far better educated than their social superiors, and were far better fitted to discharge the duties of citizenship.
The earliest authentic record we have of the Bedlington was a dog named Old Flint, who belonged to Squire Trevelyan, and was whelped in 1782. The pedigree of Mr. William Clark's Scamp, a dog well known about 1792, is traced back to Old Flint, and the descendants of Scamp were traced in direct line from 1792 to 1873.
The faults referred to are doubtless the result of breeding for exceptionally long heads, which seem to be the craze just now, and, of course, one cannot get extra long heads without proportionately long bodies and large size. If it were possible to do so, then the dog would become a mere caricature. As a sporting terrier the Bedlington holds a position in the first rank.
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