92 FOXHUNTING ON LAKELAND FELLS 



infallible when it comes to differentiating between 

 the right way and heel, despite the fact that one 

 meets people who swear their homids won't run 

 heel. After covering a lot of rough ground on the 

 drag, and having at last unkennelled your fox, 

 the real business of the day has only just begun. 

 Before night, if you are in pursuit of an old stager, 

 you may find yourself many miles from home, 

 with darkness coming on, and a rough track to 

 follow. 



One of the longest, if not the longest, hunt I 

 ever took part in occurred on January 15th, 1914. 

 The Coniston Hounds met that day at Strawberry 

 Bank, in the Winster valley. They found their 

 fox at 10 o'clock, and the last followers of the field 

 which started out in the morning, acknowledged 

 themselves beaten at 5 p.m. Hounds ran for 

 several hours longer, until darkness enabled the 

 fox to finally shake ofi his pursuers. From the 

 time hounds unkenneUed their fox, until they were 

 run out of scent, was 91 hours, sufficient, I think, to 

 constitute a record. 



Such a day is one to be set down in red ink 

 in the hunting diary. 



Taking it all through, the fell country carries a 

 good scent, except in early autumn and spring, 

 when the sun exerts considerable power, and the 

 bracken and dead leaves get very dr}^ There is 

 little hmestone in the district, but now and then 



