58 FOXHUNTING ON LAKELAND FELLS 



their denunciation of the Peterborough type of 

 hound, yet they had imported fell hounds, which 

 exactly suited their requirements, and crossed well 

 with the native-bred hounds. 



It is curious, but, nevertheless true, that in 

 England when a low-country pack run their fox 

 to the hiUs they often lose him, but let the fell 

 hounds force their fox off the feUs down to the 

 low ground and they generally kill him. The 

 fell hounds, accustomed to do most of their work 

 on more or less precipitous ground, no doubt feel 

 as if they were having a day off, as it were, when 

 they descend to the level of the dales, whereas it 

 is the other way round with the hounds of the 

 lowland packs. In summer the fell hounds go out 

 to walk at the farmhouses and other places in the 

 dales, and are brought back to kennels in the 

 hunting season. Although a pack of feU hounds 

 can hunt and kill a fox in any description of 

 country, which is more than can be said for the 

 fashionable sort, " hounds for countries " should be 

 the breeders' motto. Hounds could be quite as 

 easily judged on this principle at the shows as they 

 are now, by always keeping in mind the ideal of 

 working conformation. 



In every country there are men able to judge a 

 collection of hounds from the view-point of real 

 utiMty in that country, and as there are many 

 countries in which the same type, or practically the 



