102 FOXHUNTING ON LAKELAND FELLS 



him over close to the road. It is only fair to add 

 that this fox was slightly mangy, which probably 

 accounted for his not being able to get clear. I 

 have his mask on the wall now, and never saw one 

 armed with bigger fangs. 



Railways are seldom a danger to the fell hounds, 

 though occasionally the latter run foul of them. 

 On March 9th, 1911, the Blencathra Hounds were 

 running their fox between the metals of the 

 Cockermouth, Keswick and Pemith Railway. 

 Neither fox nor hounds noticed the approach of a 

 passenger train on its way to West Cumberland. 

 Luckily, however, the engine-driver managed to 

 bring the train to a standstill, when the fox was 

 only a few yards from the engine. A few minutes 

 later hounds accounted for their fox close to 

 Bassenthwaite Lake. 



A rather amusing incident occurred on one 

 occasion at Wythburn, near the head of Thirlmere 

 Lake. Two of the Blencathra hounds got well 

 away with their fox, and were not caught by the 

 rest of the pack until after they had rolled him 

 over in the fields bordering the Lake. A zealous 

 youth, instead of leaving the fox for the pack to 

 run up to, ran in, and thinking Reynard was dead, 

 picked him up. He quicldy dropped the 

 supposedly defunct carcass, however, when two 

 rows of remarkably sharp white teeth met in his 

 hand. 



