MODERN HARRIERS 89 



all hunting well in their own fashion. The fashion 

 of the pure foxhound is, as I have indicated, not that 

 generally acceptable to the genuine hare-hunter, 

 and I believe that if all hare-hunting men could be 

 polled, a considerable majority would be found in 

 favour of the methods of the true harrier, that is, 

 the true harrier modernised. No one, of course, could 

 put up with the tedium of the old Southern hound 

 style of hunting. It is a real pleasure to find that 

 there are still so many packs of harriers hunting in 

 England, which can show so much of the old stamp 

 of harehound. I believe, in spite of much adverse 

 opinion, that the admirers of real harriers, as opposed 

 to foxhound blood, are by no means diminishing, 

 and I am certain that much more interest is now 

 taken in this hound than was the case thirty or even 

 a score of years ago. This being the case, it seems 

 to me a pity that the foxhound type should still be 

 permitted to have its way so much at shows of the 

 present day. It is certain — and I believe even most 

 Stud-book harrier-men will agree with me — that the 

 complete elimination of old harrier blood would be a 

 great disaster for hare-hunting. Yet the methods of 

 judging at the present day still tend in that direction. 

 A Master of a fine old-fashioned pack of harriers quite 

 recently wrote to me as follows : " Only last year, 

 at a big Show, one of the judges went to my huntsman, 

 after hounds left the ring, and said he was sorry he 

 could not give us first prize, as we ought to have it, 

 and that he wished there were more harriers like ours ; 

 but he was told to judge on foxhound lines, and so, 

 of course, had to do so." At Peterborough, the Stud- 

 book harrier, which is to all intents and purposes 

 a dwarf foxhound, with a faint tinge of harrier, has 

 it practically all his own way, and the real harrier, 



