A GLANCE AT ENGLISH PACKS 119 



crops, and more often than not he gets a good hare 

 for his dinner. As for the beagle packs, they are always 

 welcome. They are hunted on foot, and, again, no 

 damage whatever is done to the farmer's property. 



Hare-hunting varies considerably in the style and 

 nature of the sport shown, in the numbers of the 

 pack and the turn-out of the staff, and in various 

 other respects, in different localities. In some places 

 you will find the general equipment and turn-out very 

 much resembling that of a good pack of foxhounds ; 

 in another — probably a rough hill country — you may 

 see, perchance, seven or eight couple of hounds, most 

 probably of old-fashioned type, taking the field, under 

 the command of a huntsman — some frosty-faced 

 veteran — on foot, of course, whose faded green coat 

 and general rusticity tell of hunt funds none too 

 plentiful and of methods that were familiar in the 

 hill country long before even John Peel himself waked 

 the echoes with his cheery voice. 



An analysis which I have made of the various harrier 

 packs in different parts of England seems to me worth 

 putting before the reader. Here, briefly, are the results : * 



Devonshire is the foremost county in England as 

 regards the number of packs it puts into the field. 

 Fourteen packs of harriers are supported by the famous 

 Western shire. Kent maintains ten packs ; York- 

 shire ten ; Somerset nine ; Lancashire eight ; Sussex 

 eight ; Norfolk, Suffolk, Gloucestershire, and Cornwall 

 three each. Other counties follow in twos and ones. 

 Wales is, as befits a rough, wild country, strong in 

 hare-hunting, and puts into the field eleven packs. 



* I have to acknowledge my indebtedness in these chapters 

 to Baily's "Hunting Directory," the i^ze/t^ Hound List, and to 

 many masters of harriers who have supplied me with informa- 

 tion. 



