242 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



the history and the records of hare-hunting — that 

 sport with harriers at the present day yields as good 

 runs as ever it did. Hare-hunts are not so frequently 

 published in the Field as are runs with foxhounds. 

 Yet, as I write this chapter, I take from the current 

 number of that excellent publication, details of a 

 first-rate run with a pack of harriers, the Dart Vale, 

 mastered and hunted by Mr. Leigh Densham. On 

 February 9, 1903, these hounds found a hare near 

 Afton Tor, and ran her by way of Loventor and Waye 

 Barton back to Afton, where they changed in some 

 big woodland. Hounds were now taken away and 

 at Weekabaro Cross roads got on to the line of a 

 travelling hare, which gave them a magnificent run 

 of an hour and ten minutes, when hounds ran into 

 her at Barton Pines. In this run, which occurred 

 without a check, a six-mile point was made, and the 

 pace was so good that at one time the pack were nearly 

 a mile ahead of the rapidly tiring field, most of whom, 

 however, by judicious riding managed to get on terms 

 again. A run like this is surely good enough even 

 for fox-hunters. 



In the same number of the Field I read an account 

 of two runs in one day with the Downham harriers ; 

 the first, thirty-five minutes and a kill with a real 

 straight-necked hare ; the second, a very fine forty- 

 five minutes and a kill in the Fens. Yet again, in 

 the same paper, is an account of a great run with the 

 Culm Vale Foot-Harriers, an hour and forty-five minutes 

 and a kill, and another run of an hour and thirty-five 

 minutes. These instances, taken from but three 

 accounts of sport with harriers in the same week, 

 prove, surely enough, if proof were needed, that hare- 

 hunting in these early years of the twentieth century 

 flourishes exceedingly. I have seen a great deal of 



