AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 3 



and more rideable than their fathers and grandfathers 

 had done, and about the same time they would doubt- 

 less discover that hounds ran faster in the open than 

 they did in the huge woodlands, where the buck was 

 the invariable quarry. 



As a matter of fact, at the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century the physical conditions of the land were 

 changing very rapidly, and the time had arrived for 

 quicker progression in a more open country, both for 

 horses and hounds. Exactly when riding across country 

 came into fashion is, however, just as much a matter of 

 conjecture as the actual date of the first pack of fox- 

 hounds, but no doubt the lighter horses began to be 

 scattered about the country during the period referred 

 to, and then it was gradually discovered that in open 

 country the fox was a nobler beast of chase than either 

 the hare or the buck ; but who actually made this dis- 

 covery has never been satisfactorily proved, and 

 though the library of the British Museum has been 

 overhauled by many who have been anxious to solve 

 the question, so far nothing decisive has been dis- 

 covered. What is known is that packs of hounds have 

 been in existence since the reign of Edward III, and 

 probably during an earlier period. Indeed, in Baily's 

 Huntmg Directory it is claimed that the Penistone 

 Harriers "were established in 1260, in which year Sir 

 Elias de Midhope was master. The Wilsons of Broom- 

 head Hall furnished the pack with masters in the four- 

 teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries . . . 

 but the roll is incomplete until the last century." It 

 was not until a hundred years later (1362) that there is 

 absolutely definite information about the now defunct 

 Royal Buckhounds, but in the reign of Edward III 

 there were a minimum number of fifteen couples in the 



