CHAPTER XIII 



COST AND EQUIPMENT 



Expenses of harriers — Cost of different packs — Of 

 foot-packs — Lord Suffolk's experience — Various 

 estimates — Cost of a fashionable pack — Average with 

 moderate expenditure — Items on starting a pack — 

 Horses — Dress of Hunt servants — " Merry Beagler's " 

 costume, sixty to seventy years ago — Present costume 

 — Expenses of pedestrians — Subscriptions 



The expense of maintaining a pack of harriers must, 

 of necessity, be a matter of great elasticity, varying 

 in accordance with the ideas of the Master, the length 

 of his purse, and the general turn-out of the establish- 

 ment. Some few packs of harriers, which perhaps 

 are rather extravagantly managed, and maintain a 

 larger number of hounds than are necessary for hare- 

 hunting, may cost as much as ;^700 per annum, or even 

 a trifle more. If you wish to turn out your men in 

 a style rivalling that of a good pack of foxhounds, as 

 I have seen more than one Master do, you may, and 

 probably will, make a big hole in a thousand pounds. 

 But this is quite unnecessary. With harriers you can 

 see just as much sport with a pack that costs not more 

 than £250 a year, or even less, as with a pack of very 

 high-bred dwarf foxhounds, the Master and two men 

 mounted on expensive horses, unnecessarily good for 

 their work. At the far end of the scale of cost, you 

 may place some of the humbler foot-packs, which can 



