78 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



of interest in the old harrier blood, and indeed in hare- 

 hunting generally ; and there is now, I think, little 

 fear that the old English' harrier, with his wonderful 

 scenting powers, his grand voice, his natural and 

 inherited aptitude for hare-hunting, is ever likely to 

 disappear or be driven out by the foxhound pure and 

 simple. There are at the present time three schools 

 of harrier-men in existence : 



1. The admirers of the pure harrier, or what may 

 be called the pure harrier. 



2. The Kennel Stud-book harrier-men, by which may 

 be understood the admirers of a harrier showing strong 

 foxhound cross. 



3. Those who prefer to hunt with the dwarf fox- 

 hound. 



All three schools have, naturally, many things to 

 urge in favour of their own views of hare-hunting 

 and harehounds. With these matters I propose to 

 deal a little later in this chapter. For the purpose 

 of illustrating as far as possible the relative strength 

 and numbers of these schools, I have made a rough 

 summary from the list of packs of English and Welsh 

 harriers, to be found in " Daily's Hunting Directory." 

 It runs thus : 



Stud-book Harriers 38 Packs. 



" Pure " and " Old English " Harriers 35 ,, 



Cross-bred Hounds ■ 14 „ 



Dwarf Foxhounds 10 ,, 

 Mixed Harriers and Foxhounds 8 ,, 



In addition to these I have a note of three packs 

 which are simply described as "Harriers," and which I 

 have, therefore, not allocated to any of the above. 



From this it will be seen that, although " Stud-book 

 Harriers " head the list, " Pure " and " Old English " 

 harriers run them pretty close. Stud-book harriers 



