CHAPTER IV 



THE OLD-TIME HAREHOUND 



Evolution of " Pure Harriers " — Old hunting hounds 

 — Colour of Southern hound and of modern descend- 

 ants — Qualities of Southern hound — Grand voices — 

 A sneer at hare-hunting — Northern hound — Sir John 

 Amory's harriers — An old strain — Opinion of an 

 eighteenth-century authority on the harrier — Con- 

 cerning beagles — Some infamously bad ones — A fine 

 performance — Characteristics of a good hound — All 

 hounds are blended — Some ancient packs — Trencher- 

 fed hounds — Old hound names 



I HAVE already shown that, in the very early days of 

 the English Chase, fox-hunting and foxhounds, as 

 we now recognise them, were unknown. Modern 

 fox-hunting, in fact, only began to be evolved towards 

 the middle of the eighteenth century. The harrier 

 of the eighteenth century, the descendants of which 

 are now known to us as " Pure Harriers," was in like 

 manner not evolved much, if at all, before the reign 

 of George L or George II. Up to the end of the 

 seventeenth century the hare was hunted by more or 

 less slow, old-fashioned, deep-voiced hounds — known 

 as Southern or Northern hounds — or by the Talbot, 

 which latter, in the opinion of some authorities, was 

 near akin to the bloodhound of the present day. 

 The bloodhound is, in fact, the surviving representative 

 of the massive hunting hounds with which our ancestors 



