8o Some more old time Harrier packs. 



In the early part of the nineteenth century, when the 

 Hurworth frequently stayed at Guisborough for a week at a 

 time, to hunt that portion of what is now the Cleveland country, 

 they frequently ran foul of Mr. Wharton's Skelton Harriers, as 

 will be seen later by the Wilkinsons' diaries. In addition to 

 these packs, Mr. Peirse had harriers at Thimbleby, and Mr. 

 Trotter had a pack on the Durham side. Later, Mr. R. S. D. 

 Roper hunted a portion of the country with harriers, and in his 

 diary (from which we hope to give quotations later) we find 

 that he often drew " Lozzy's Whin," and not infrequently ran 

 a fox when one got up before his pack. They must have been 

 death on hares, for in his diary for Nov. ist, 1842, we find the 

 master making the following entry : 



" Harriers at Lime (?) Pasture. Day very wet. Very good scent. 

 Killed 5 hares. Obliged to come home, as the hounds killed every hare 

 that got up almost immediately." 



Then there were Mr. Maynard's Harlsey Harriers and 

 Rickaby's Swainby pack (with which the Wilkinsons occasion- 

 ally clashed). In those days intercommunication was difficult, 

 and country gentlemen were compelled to eke out their sport 

 pretty much on their own properties, or at any rate on their 

 own estates. Thus is it one finds that there w^ere many packs 

 of hounds hunting one particular country. They were called 

 harriers, but nothing seems to have delighted the field more (as 

 is the case with the Glaisdale harriers of to-day) than when the 

 nobler quarry — the fox — jumped up. Witness another extract 

 from Mr. Roper's diaries : 



"Nov. 3rd, 1843. — Harriers at Leven House. Killed two hares in 

 view. Found a third and during the run changed to a fox, which was 

 lost near an old barn near Coatham [Stobbs]. Found a fourth, and in the 

 run also changed to fox which went to ground in a drain.'' 



