MODERN HARRIERS 75 



would have composed the harrier packs of England, 

 to the exclusion of almost every other kind of hound. 

 The " cathedral note and the table-cloth ear," typical 

 of the Southern hound, were completely out of date, 

 or said to be so, and sharp, quick scurries of twenty 

 minutes and half an hour were being not only recom- 

 mended but practised. A Sussex pack of that time 

 killed six hares in a morning, and the huntsman is 

 described by a rightly indignant onlooker as " trying 

 to mob his seventh hare ! " Mr. Yeatman, a gentle- 

 man hunting near Sherborne, was famous in those 

 days for his harriers, and his pack consisted of eighteen 

 or twenty couples of about three-parts-bred foxhounds, 

 averaging nineteen inches. In 1832 these hounds killed 

 one hundred and nine hares out of one hundred and 

 sixteen hunted, which is undoubtedly an extraordinary 

 feat — in fact, much too extraordinary for fair hare- 

 hunting. In 1826, "Nimrod," in one of his famous tours, 

 printed in the Sporting Magazine, speaks of Sir William 

 Wake's harriers, hunting near Northampton. These 

 he describes as " hare-hunting foxhounds." Sir William 

 Wake, it may be noted, had then been a Master of 

 harriers nearly forty years. The foxhound-harrier 

 evidently maintained its vogue pretty consistently 

 among the most forward school of harrier-men for 

 a long period. In 1855 appeared " Stonehenge's " 

 excellent volume of " British Rural Sports." I quote 

 what he says concerning the harrier of that time : 

 " The harrier is now a crossed animal, bred in all sorts 

 of ways, and varying from twenty-one inches down to 

 fifteen or sixteen. In looks more like the foxhound 

 than the beagle, he has some remnants of his old breed 

 in the longer ears, wider head, and stouter body which 

 he possesses. He should, however, have a most delicate 

 nose, even more so than the beagle ; for as his increased 



