MODERN HARRIERS 77 



blance of that sport, although they made much noise 

 in the world, were not so successful in effecting their 

 purpose as many people seem to have imagined. There 

 remained in quiet country places, remote from railways, 

 and therefore little heard of, a large number of sports- 

 men who preferred to stick to hare-hunting proper, 

 and were not carried after strange gods. By this I do 

 not mean to say that they preferred the obsolete 

 chase of the old Southern hound. That had become 

 a thing of the past, and the brisker style of hare- 

 hunting, as advocated by Beckford, was recognised 

 as the proper way to hunt hare, even by old-fashioned 

 squires. 



Devonshire, especially, remained the stronghold of 

 good old English harrier blood — the fruit of the 

 union of Southern hound and beagle, recommended 

 by Beckford ; and Devonshire is to this day the 

 country in which, if you want to pick up old-fashioned 

 harriers, little if at all crossed with the foxhound, you 

 can still do so. Devonshire, eighty years ago, seems 

 to have been regarded as rich in hare-hunting, but of 

 no account for sport with the fox. In 1826 " Nimrod " 

 says of it, " Devonshire has some things to recom- 

 mend it — fish and venison for little or nothing, and 

 leverets tenpence per head." 



But, besides Devonshire, other parts of the country 

 cherished also what may be called pure harrier blood. 

 In Wales, parts of Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmore- 

 land, and Lancashire an old-fashioned breed of hound 

 was kept on foot for hare-hunting, and to-day, in 

 various packs in these localities, you may yet see 

 strong traces of this blood, even now little contami- 

 nated by the foxhound infusion. 



Within the last twenty years, and especially within 

 the last dozen, there has been a remarkable revival 



