132 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



hunting a first-rate pack of harriers from Everdon Hall, 

 near Daventry. As a youngster I saw a good deal of 

 fox-hunting in this part of England, but I never, in 

 those days, heard of a pack of harriers anywhere within 

 hail. It is a pleasure to find hare-hunting now so firmly 

 established in this fine country. Mr. Hawkins bought 

 his pack of harriers from Mr. John Horsey, who had 

 hunted from Dallington, near Northampton, since 1888. 

 The hounds, which are Stud-book harriers, are ex- 

 ceptionally good ones, taking in 1900 three prizes at 

 Peterborough Show. They consist of thirty-two and 

 a half couples, the present standard being nineteen 

 inches. Formerly they were seventeen and a half- 

 to eighteen-inch harriers, and one is sorry to note the 

 rise in standard which too often seems inevitable among 

 breeders of harehounds at the present day. I am 

 afraid foxhound blood has much to answer for. This 

 tendency to increase the size of harriers is one which 

 is growing, and which ought to be repressed. Harriers 

 as big as foxhounds are an anomaly, and are, into the 

 bargain, quite unnecessary. Hare-hunters do not 

 require to course their hares, but to kill them by fair 

 and downright hunting. However, if Mr. Hawkins 

 maintains his harriers at nineteen inches he is quite 

 within reasonable limits, for a mounted pack. Mr. 

 Hawkins tells me that by the kindness of the land- 

 owners and farmers he has been enabled to increase 

 his area of sport very considerably. " Situated in 

 the heart of one of the most favourite fox-hunting 

 shires of England, one might, perhaps," he remarks, 

 " have anticipated some reluctance on the part of the 

 farmers to welcome an additional pack of hounds on 

 their land ; and it speaks volumes for the sporting 

 spirit innate in the Northamptonshire yeoman, when 

 one is able to announce quite a different sentiment as 



