A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



fixed upon for the attack, when I myself was 

 an eye-witness to the death of twelve foxes 

 within the week. The sum total of vermin 

 destroyed was fifteen foxes, seven badgers, 

 twelve wild cats, and nine martens (called 

 here, by way of distinction, clean marts) be- 

 sides a prodigious number of foulmarts, 

 eagles, ravens, gleads, etc. The wiles and 

 policy of the foxes were truly astonishing, 

 such as jumping from the rocks upon trees 

 covered with ivy, where they would some- 

 times conceal themselves and defeat their 

 pursuers; at other times they ran just within 

 tha edge of Ulleswater, so that no scent re- 

 mained.' 1 It was probably out of this 

 organized effort for self-protection that the 

 practice of hunting the vermin as a sport 

 arose in that district. The sudden change of 

 public opinion with regard to the sweetmart, 

 the foulmart and the fox during the latter 

 half of the eighteenth century is very striking. 

 It was during that period in later times that 

 these animals ceased to be regarded as vermin 

 and came within the category of sport. The 

 sporting name is still ' the varmint,' almost 

 certainly the survival from a more prosaic 

 time. Whether or not the tenants of Grey- 

 stoke learned to respect the animal for its 

 sporting qualities and imbibed their sporting 

 inclinations from the orgies of 1759, certain 

 it is that very soon after we have record of 

 the sweetmart as a beast of venery. Richardson, 

 writing before 1794 of the fauna in the 

 neighbourhood of Ulleswater, stated that the 

 sweetmart occasionally afforded good sport to 

 the hunters in the woods and about the rocks, 

 adding that its skin was held in high estima- 

 tion. 2 



The hunting of the mart, so keenly enjoyed 

 by the dalesmen, must be reckoned a feature 

 of Cumberland sport during the nineteenth 

 century, though it appears to have been prac- 

 tised more frequently in the sister county of 

 Westmorland where the animal was more 

 widely distributed. We have no certain evi- 

 dence to show whether hounds were kept 

 exclusively for this sort of hunting. It is 

 probable that the packs in the dales were 

 composed of foxhounds and employed to hunt 

 foxes, marts, polecats and badgers indiscrimin- 

 ately as occasion offered. While Mr. W. A. 

 Durnford was out with the Wasdale hounds 

 in 1879 he witnessed a mart hunt on Yew- 

 barrow, a mountain about 1,000 feet in 

 height overlooking Wastwater. In the graphic 

 account of his experiences on that early morn- 



1 James Clarke, Survey of the Lakes, pp. 29, 30, 

 (ed. 1789). 



3 Hutchinson, History of Cumberland, i. 448. 



ing he says it soon became evident that some- 

 thing was on foot as they commenced the 

 ascent. The hounds showed manifest signs 

 of excitement, examining every nook and 

 stopping at every crevice to take in the scent. 

 Suddenly an old dog gave tongue and the 

 whole pack was quickly off in full cry up the 

 face of the mountain raising a chorus which 

 resounded from crag to crag across the valley 

 below. As the beast was soon discovered to 

 be a mart, men and dogs settled down to the 

 chase. At one time, continues the sportsman, 

 we were clambering on hands and feet up a 

 perpendicular precipice, at another, crawling 

 through a narrow crevice between two high 

 boulders ; now running across a sea of stones, 

 which gave way at every step and rendered it 

 impossible even to think of standing still ; 

 now stepping from ledge to ledge, and trust- 

 ing one's life to the sturdy alpenstock with 

 which each one had armed himself before set- 

 ting out. The hounds were in the mean- 

 time clambering up with an agility which 

 would astonish their relations further south, 

 resembling a party of squirrels rather than 

 members of the canine race as they vied with 

 one another in their anxiety to be to the fore. 



After an hour of that sort of work, the 

 mart took refuge in a crevice in the face of a 

 rock, from which the huntsmen smoked him 

 out with the aid of grass, gunpowder and an 

 old newspaper. As soon as the smoke reached 

 the beast it bolted from a hole a short distance 

 off. Away it went again with dogs and men 

 in hot pursuit. Presently taking refuge in 

 some loose boulders, the terriers were set to 

 work and from the ' bield ' it was soon dis- 

 lodged. But it was the beginning of the 

 end. The ' quarry ' escaped to a plateau on 

 the summit of the mountain broken only by 

 some fragments of rock which afforded no 

 shelter. It was evidently making for the 

 Pillar Mountain which stood out in the dis^ 

 tance, a notable stronghold for birds and beasts 

 of prey, and which, if once reached, would 

 afford a certain protection. Bravely the little 

 creature raced on, staking life on its swiftness 

 of foot. On the level ground however it 

 had no chance, though it managed to head its 

 pursuers for about a mile after leaving the 

 rocks. The hounds alone were present at 

 the death. 3 



The sport was not always accompanied by 

 the element of danger while men and dogs 



3 For the picturesque narrative of which we 

 have made a short summary see the Field, Dec. 6, 

 1879. The article has been reproduced in the 

 Zoologist of 1891 and in the Fauna of Lakeland 

 (1892). 



456 



