CHAPTER XV 



HUNTING WITH FOOT-HARRIERS 



A typical English sport — Brampton Harriers — John 

 Peel's country — Dyke jumping — An athletic pastime 

 — Good foot-jumpers a match for horses, over water — 

 Some long jumps — -Advice to runners — Pleasures and 

 advantages of foot-hunting — Nature notes — Strange 

 visitants — Beauties of the woods — A startled hare — 

 How a camera was saved — The Sussex " bat " — 

 Smugglers — Rules of Holcombe Harriers, 1773 — A 

 quaint document — Foot-hunting a fine training 



Hunting with foot-harriers is a pecuharly Enghsh 

 sport, which must have flourished in quiet country- 

 places for untold generations. It is typically English, 

 as it seems to me, for the reason that it appeals 

 to those athletic and outdoor instincts in which all 

 Englishmen, and indeed all Britons, have been remark- 

 able from the earliest times. And especially in the 

 wilder and remoter parts of the kingdom, in localities 

 unsuited for pursuit on horseback, is the foot-hunter 

 to be found flourishing at the present day, just as he 

 has flourished for hundreds of years past. The Fells 

 of Cumberland and Westmoreland, the moors of Lan- 

 cashire, the hflls of Wales and the marshes and downs 

 of Sussex still afford magnificent sport to foot-hunters, 

 and throughout the winter attract small but enthu- 

 siastic fields, who follow each feature of the chase and 

 watch the staunch harriers at their work with a keen- 



