A GLANCE AT ENGLISH PACKS 121 



chiefly in plough country, varied as to about a third 

 of its area by grass. Mr. Meysey Thompson, hunting 

 from Rokeby, Barnard Castle, kennels eighteen couples 

 of harriers, which go out two days a week. These 

 are described as " pure harriers and black and tans," 

 which seems to indicate that the pack is one of the 

 old-fashioned sort. 



We now come to Lancashire, the home of a very 

 old type of English hound, the descendants of which 

 may here and there be seen among harrier packs. The 

 Aspull Harriers, maintained by Mr. Carlton Cross, 

 of Crooke Hall, Chorley, number twenty-five couples. 

 They are modern Stud-book harriers, of twenty- and 

 twenty-one-inch standard, and hunt an area of about 

 seventeen miles by twelve, consisting chiefly of pasture. 

 A subscription is guaranteed by the Aspull Hunt 

 Club, and strangers are capped 5s. per diem. The 

 country is a very nice one to ride, with plenty of 

 flying fences ; it carries a good scent, and sport is 

 excellent. There is some wire, but arrangements 

 are made for taking it down yearly. Wire, by the 

 way, although always objectionable, is not quite so 

 great a curse in a harrier country as in a fox-hunting 

 one. It is always interesting to have a Master's ideas 

 on his own and other people's hounds. Mr. Cross 

 tells me that he likes a harrier cross a long way back. 

 He has a good deal of Belvoir blood in his pack. He 

 tries to maintain a slight harrier strain, as he thinks 

 it gives hounds business and perseverance, when a 

 sinking hare is foiling her ground and dodging. Mr. 

 Cross, however, holds an opinion, heretical, of course, 

 to most pure harrier men, that a foxhound has just 

 as good a nose as a harrier. And as to pace, he asserts 

 that, for a race, with a hare in view, a harrier goes 

 quite as fast as, or faster than, a foxhound. I am 



