250 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



ness and enjoyment not to be excelled in any branch 

 of British rural sport. As for beagle packs, to which 

 I shall come in another chapter, they are nowadays 

 very plentiful, and in almost all parts of England 

 afford excellent hunting. Even in Ireland, that coun- 

 try of horses and horsemen, as I have shown, the hare 

 is occasionally hunted with harriers on foot ; and the 

 peasants and small farmers of Kerry and Clare gather 

 their trencher-fed hounds on Sunday mornings and 

 range the mountains in pursuit of a pastime which 

 affords them endless pleasure and excitement. In 

 Cumberland and the lake country, the fox as well as 

 the hare is hunted on foot, and among the rugged 

 fells great sport is shown with either quarry. Whether 

 John Peel hunted hare as well as fox, I know not ; 

 possibly he did. But at the present day the Bramp- 

 ton Harriers, hunting from near Carlisle, show first-rate 

 sport with hare in Peel's old country. These hounds 

 are now hunted on horseback as well as on foot ; but 

 when engaged in some of their fell country, they can 

 be hunted and followed on foot only. Occasionally 

 after a good day the field rest and refresh themselves 

 at Caldbeck Inn, and, with the cheery fell-side farmers, 

 wake the echoes of the very room where, years ago, 

 the famous old hunting-song was composed. John 

 Peel himself, it will be remembered, lived at Trout- 

 beck " once on a day," but the veteran in his grey 

 coat hunted his hounds many a time and oft above 

 Caldbeck village. 



Hunting on foot is a thoroughly democratic sport, 

 which can be enjoyed by the country lad or girl, the 

 farmer's son, the village postman, nay, the village 

 cobbler, if he choose to put aside his last, just as heartily 

 as by the squire himself, or any of their betters. The 

 good farmer himself welcomes the hounds. Even if, 



