CHAPTER VII 



A GLANCE AT ENGLISH PACKS— NORTHUMBERLAND 

 TO OXFORDSHIRE 



Numbers of packs hunting hare in United 

 Kingdom — Reasons for revived popularity — 

 Variety of equipment — Summary of packs — 

 Strength of various countries — Wales — North 

 of England — Some notable packs — The AspuU 

 — Holcombe — Rochdale — Vale of Lune — York- 

 shire packs — Derbyshire — High Peak Harriers^ 

 An old foot-pack — Isle of Man — Notts — Ross 

 Harriers — Bentley Harriers — Mr. Hawkins' Harriers 

 — The heart of fox-hunting England — Norfolk, Beds, 

 and Suffolk packs 



There are at the present time hunting hare in different 

 parts of England and Wales no fewer than one hundred 

 and fourteen packs of harriers. Beagles and basset 

 hounds, of which I shall treat in later chapters, number 

 in the United Kingdom some fifty packs. In Ireland 

 about thirty-one packs of harriers are maintained. 

 Scotland is neither a good fox-hunting nor a good hare- 

 hunting country, and but three packs of harriers are 

 put into the field by sportsmen north of the Tweed. 

 These figures, added together, give the formidable total 

 of one hundred and ninety-eight packs of hounds hunt- 

 ing hare in Great Britain and Ireland, or, deducting the 

 trifle of three Scottish packs, one hundred and ninety- 

 five packs in England, Wales, and Ireland. The Isle 

 of Man supports a pack of its own, which, however, 



