CLEVELAND AND ESKDALP:. 193 



gone to America, some to the ludies, and some few have found 

 fresh quarters iu their native country. We cannot hut express 

 our regret that a pack of hounds which had arrived at so high a 

 standard of excellence should have been scattered about in this 

 manner. A good pack of hounds, adapted for the country which 

 they have to hunt, is not the creation of a day or a year, and 

 their dispersal is little short of a calamity. The Eskdale hounds 

 ■were carried on at a light expense, David Smallwood mounting 

 himself and the whip for a less sum than a first whip gets in 

 some of the fishiouable countries, but small as the subscription 

 w^as, there was much difficulty in gathering it in. It is very 

 evident there is someone to blame ; but it cannot be the farmers, 

 who arc born sportsmen, always willing to keep a hound or two if 

 they cannot aflbrd a big subscription, and eager to do what in 

 them lies to promote the welfare of the Hunt. It was no un- 

 common occurrence for them to loose their horses out of the 

 plough when the hounds crossed their farms, and, regardless of 

 barfin and haims, to thunder away in pursuit of the pack as long 

 as the wind of their " mount " held out. 



But the principal difficulty lay in the scarcity of foxes, and 

 also in the encroachments to which allusion has already been 

 made in the text, and of which an example has been given. 



It is not in our province to enquire into motives or criticise the 

 action of anyone, but we cannot refrain from again expressing our 

 regret that the pack which David Smallwood, assisted by Mr. 

 Parrington and others, has been at such pains to bring to per- 

 fection should be given up, and that David's horn should be no 

 longer heard in the country he hunted so well. 



