COST AND EQUIPMENT 217 



be run upon extremely inexpensive lines. I am ac- 

 quainted with a pack of nineteen or twenty couples 

 of foot-harriers, for example, which cost to the sub- 

 scribers a year or so back no more than £120 per 

 annum. In this case, however, the kennels, which 

 belong to the Master, are occupied rent free ; the 

 kennel huntsman is employed about the same gentle- 

 man's garden, and gets part of his wages in that way ; 

 and, the pack being fed almost entirely on horse-flesh, 

 there is no big bill for meal. At the same time, this 

 pack is thoroughly well done ; the kennel huntsman 

 and whip are neatly turned out in proper costume, 

 with caps, green coats, breeches, gaiters, and so forth ; 

 and there is even a small surplus available towards 

 prizes at a local Root Show. This convinces one that 

 packs of harriers can be, and often are, hunted at 

 astonishingly low cost, compared with the enormous 

 figures to which the maintenance of foxhounds now 

 runs. On the following page are the accounts of a pack 

 of ten couples of foot-harriers in the north of England, 

 which show how very cheaply sport can be obtained 

 in a wild district where hares are plentiful and there 

 are many good friends to hunting. 



This account is for the season ending May 1901. 

 It will be observed that there is a balance in hand of 

 £28, which, deducted from the figures at foot, £149 los., 

 leaves £121 los. as the cost of maintenance of this 

 particular pack. Still lower in the scale of expendi- 

 ture is the cost of a small pack of beagles, say ten or 

 twelve couples, which can be kept going, allowing for 

 wages of a sharp lad, who will act as kennel huntsman 

 and whip, at £70 per annum, or less. 



Even in the case of a pack of mounted harriers, the 

 expenditure is often surprisingly little. The late Earl 

 of Suffolk and Berkshire, who thoroughly understood 



