138 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



The Aldenham have been at different times very 

 successful at Peterborough. Essex is by no means 

 strong at the present time in hare-hunting, yet its 

 sohtary pack, Mr. Quare's, is distinguished as one of 

 the best and most successful in the country. Hunting 

 chiefly in the territory of the Essex foxhounds, this 

 pack is numerically the largest in the kingdom, muster- 

 ing as many as thirty-five couples of pure harriers, 

 crossed with foxhound blood. They are duly entered 

 in the harrier Stud-book. As regards quality, this 

 is quite one of the first-rate packs, considered from 

 the point of view of the powers that be, presiding 

 over the harrier classes at Peterborough Hound Show, 

 where Mr. Quare's are distinguished and repeated 

 prize-takers. Erom about 1830 to 1892 the late 

 Mr. Vigne, a fine sportsman of the old school, was at 

 the head of this pack, and showed good sport in the 

 country about Epping Forest, where, by the way, 

 these hounds have still permission to hunt.* 



Kent, with ten packs, is well to the fore, proving 

 incontestably that hare-hunting can flourish at no 

 great distance from London. The Ashford Valley, 

 hunting a good country, twenty miles wide by twelve 

 miles north and south, muster twenty couples of 

 twenty-inch hounds — part of them entered in the 

 Stud-book — consisting of a cross between Southern 

 hound and dwarf foxhound. Wire, as in many other 

 countries, is, unfortunately, a growing trouble. The 

 Blean, nineteen couples of pure harriers, kennelled at 

 Bleanwood, near Canterbury, hunt a varied country 

 towards the sea, consisting of grass marshes, ordinary 

 pasture, plough, hop gardens, and woodland. This 

 is a comparatively new pack of harriers, which has 



* Since these lines were written, I regret to learn that these 

 harriers have been given up. 



