THE FARNDALE. 149 



and Jack Parker. When a character sketch ha3 been given 

 of one of these veterans, as of Bobbie Dawson, one has 

 more or less spoken of the whole of them, the outstanding 

 idiosyncracies being peculiarly similar. Most of them were 

 entered to the chase very early in life, never departed from 

 it, and died full of years and service. Still there are dis- 

 similarities of detail. Jack Parker, of whom much will be 

 said later, was a hard man to follow, and was usually with 

 his hounds no matter what the country might be through 

 which they were travelling. Neither Joe Duck nor old 

 Bobbie Dawson were riders, nor had they the horses to 

 ride had they been inclined to ' push on.' Hounds were bred 

 much smaller in these days, and perhaps more with a view 

 to music, bone, and colour, than pace or symmetry. 

 In an interview I had with old Mr. Alexander, he told me 

 that Duck rode a grey pony not much over thirteen hands. 

 He very often walked, getting a boy to lead his pony, and 

 taking his hounds amongst crags and through dells where 

 even a " gallower " would be unable to travel. Even 

 now with these dale packs they require little hunting. 

 At a check they will cast themselves, and I have noticed 

 that huntsmen invariably cast back on the hills before 

 casting forward, if hounds have not already made 

 back to the last point where they were able to speak to their 

 fox. According to Mr. Alexander, who has known the hunt 

 for forty-five years, when tally-ho was heard, and hounda 

 got away, old Joe was not seen any more for some time. 

 He only had this one pony, which was over twenty years old. 

 He had some seven couples of hounds, and it is interesting 

 to note that though from time to time the Farndale have had 

 drafts given them from other packs — they have succeeded 

 in retaining the colour which has always characterised them — 

 black and white — which is* obviously the best for seeing 

 hounds on the moors. They were of this colour in 

 old Joe's time. But where did he get his hounds from to 

 commence, or re-commence as the case may be — the Farn- 

 dale ? This is a question upon which I am not very clear. 

 It seems at this period they still possessed that individuality 



