84 THE WILLEY KENNELS. 



strength and endurance than now. The late Mr. 

 Thursfield, of Barrow, was wont to say that it was 

 no unusual thing to see Moody taking the hounds 

 to cover before daylight in a morning. The Squire 

 himself, like most other sportsmen of the period, 

 was an early man. 



Col. Apperley says : " With our forefathers, 

 when the roost-cock sounded his clarion, they 

 sounded their horn, throwing off the pack so soon 

 as they could distinguish a stile from a gate, or, 

 in other words, so soon as they could see to ride to 

 the hounds. Then it was that the hare was hunted 

 to her form by the trail, and the fox to his kennel 

 by the drag. Slow as this system would be deemed, 

 it was a grand treat to the real sportsman. What, in 

 the language of the chase, is called the ' tender-nosed 

 hound,' had an opportunity of displaying itself to 

 the inexpressible delight of his master ; and to the 

 field — that is, to the sportsmen who joined in the 

 diversion — the pleasures of the day were enhanced 

 by the moments of anticipation produced by the 

 drag. As the scent grew warmer, the certainty of 

 finding was confirmed ; the music of the pack in- 

 creased ; and the game being up, away went the 

 hounds in a crash. Both trail and drag are at pre- 



