72 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



date from 1820, while the Rossendale, another Lanca- 

 shire pack, boast a much longer pedigree, and have 

 been in existence some centuries. Until about seventy 

 years ago they were trencher-fed. 



All those accustomed to hunting know what 

 " trencher-fed " means. But there may be readers 

 who do not. In the old days all packs of hounds 

 were not confined in kennels, but were allowed to 

 roam about the Master's premises, being fed with 

 broken victuals, or picking up their food irregularly 

 from trenchers, dishes and so forth. In many instances 

 a number of people maintained hounds together, each 

 keeping a hound, and appearing with it or sending 

 it to the pack on hunting-days. These again were 

 trencher-fed. Here and there in Ireland trencher-fed 

 harriers still exist ; these are the so-called " Kerry 

 beagles," which are kept by village folk and come to 

 the horn for Sunday hunts. In England, at least 

 two packs of foxhounds, the Goathland and the 

 Farndale, hunting in a wild moorland district of the 

 North Riding of Yorkshire, are trencher-fed. And 

 in England also the Holmfirth, Henley, and Meltham 

 Harriers, which have hunted near Huddersfield since 

 1800, as well as the Glaisdale, another Yorkshire pack, 

 hunting in the North Riding, are still trencher-fed. 

 I fancy there are one or two other such packs still in 

 existence. 



Another pack with a long history is the Stannington, 

 which hunts in Lord FitzWilliam's country, in the 

 neighbourhood of Sheffield. The Tanat-Side, a Shrop- 

 shire pack, have a quite respectable antiquity, their 

 own records going back to 1828, and those of their 

 predecessors dating beyond 1754. 



It may be not inappropriate to wind up this chapter 

 on harriers of the remote past with some ancient hound- 



