SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Westmorland a decisive beating. It was 

 a capital trail run at a speed to shut up 

 middling ones. Well known dogs such as 

 Jeremiah Wilson's ' Laddie ' and Fletcher 

 Pearson's ' Stormer,' in their own neigh- 

 bourhood considerable favourites, came in 

 nowhere, beaten off in fact, and after the 

 first mile clean out of the hunt altogether. 

 The winner on this occasion was ' Black 

 Towler,' a very superior fast dog bred by 

 Jim Morley, weaver, at Holme Head, Car- 

 lisle ; the second Mr. Hodgson's (of Aikton) 

 ' Darter.' The former was one of a litter 

 of four out of J. Green's ' Crafty ' and got 

 by ' Haydon ' from the Haydon Bridge pack. 

 They were considered by far the best ever 

 bred in one litter. Besides ' Black Towler ' 

 there was another ' Towler,' a ' Tipler,' and 

 ' Rattler.' Morley was an extraordinary 

 character in his way about trail dogs, so 

 enthusiastically attached to the sport that 

 frequently after attending to his trade for 



twelve hours he would devote hour after hour 

 ' in the season of the year ' till midnight and 

 often till one or two in the morning in 

 running breaking-in trails for young dogs. 

 This was Jim's special delight, and he 

 ' waad ha' gane anywhere ' to see a good 

 trail. 



In conclusion, it may be interesting to 

 institute a comparison between the hounds of 

 the north and the south. For this purpose 

 we must refer again to the 12-mile match 

 run near Gilsland in twenty-five minutes and 

 a half over a rough country. In a famous 

 match at Newmarket between two dogs 

 owned by Mr. Barry and two belonging to 

 Mr. Meynell, the time for 4 miles was a few 

 seconds over eight minutes. Bearing in mind 

 that the Gilsland run was three times as long 

 as the other, which was over the best going 

 ground in England, we should probably be 

 correct in concluding that the northern hounds 

 were the faster. 



OTTER HUNTING 



The early history of the hunting of the 

 otter (Lutra vulgarii) in Cumberland is en- 

 veloped in much obscurity. 1 



A search of parish registers has failed to 

 discover that the otter was on the list of 

 vermin for whose destruction churchwardens 

 paid rewards ; but as such head money, rang- 

 ing from sixpence to a shilling a head, was 

 offered at Kendal, in the neighbouring county 

 of Westmorland, in 1731-70, it seems 

 probable that a similiar practice prevailed 

 in some parts of Cumberland. At any rate, 

 gamekeepers regarded otters as ' noxious 

 animals.' Nine killed in one year (18212) 

 by Robert Cowen, gamekeeper to Sir Wilfrid 

 Lawson, are so catalogued in the Car/isle 



1 We have failed to find references to otter 

 hunting in Cumberland in the early records of 

 sport. It may be mentioned however that a 

 ' master of the otter hounds ' was reckoned among 

 the officers of the king's household from an early 

 period. In the Wardrobe Account of 1 8 Edward 

 I., John le Oterhunte has an allowance ' pro 

 putura octo canum suorum lutericiorum.' Edward 

 IV. had a pack of otter hounds which, like the 

 packs of harriers and buckhounds, was composed 

 partly of running hounds and partly of greyhounds. 

 By letters patent dated 1 8 July, 1461, the 

 ' office called oterhunte ' was granted to Thomas 

 Hardegrove for life (Select Pleas of the Forest, p. 

 145, ed. G. J. Turner, Selden Society). It is 

 evident that otter hunting was at one time the 

 sport of kings. 



461 



Journal of 8 June, 1822, in a list of vermin 

 which he had destroyed in twelve months. 

 The hunting of the otter with hounds had 

 however already begun. There appears in 

 Hutchinson's History of Cumberland a descrip- 

 tion by Richardson of otter hunting from a 

 boat on Ulleswater at the end of the eighteenth 

 century ; and in an obituary notice of Thomas 

 Fenton, aged 77, published in the Carlisle 

 Journal of 26 July, 1823, otter hunting is 

 mentioned among the diversions of that 

 'veteran sportsman.' It may be further 

 stated that Dr. Heysham in his natural history 

 notes in ' Hutchinson,' written towards the 

 end of the eighteenth century, remarks that 

 'the otter, although not numerous, is an 

 inhabitant of almost all our rivers and lakes, 

 and is frequently hunted with hounds trained 

 for the purpose.' Otter hunting with hounds 

 in Cumberland may therefore be carried 

 back to the last decade of the eighteenth 

 century, and probably it was practised before 

 that period. 



In the first half of the nineteenth century 

 otter hounds were kept in small numbers in 

 different parts of the county, and used for 

 hunting both otters and foulmarts. About 

 1830 otter hounds were kept at Isel Vicarage 

 near Cockermouth, and were hunted for nearly 

 thirty years by the vicar, the Rev. Hilton 

 Wybergh. They did not number at first 

 more than half a dozen, one of the pack 



