1 66 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



looking young fellows set out on the journey, 

 which was some three miles, and, with the excep- 

 tion of the run in, was all either up hill or down. 

 At a long stretching trot, a pace which covers 

 ground in a remarkably short time, they started up 

 hill, rounded a flag some mile and a half off, and 

 then ran down the hill, jumping from crag to crag 

 in a way simply marvellous to one from a low 

 country. They came in in rather straggling order, 

 but they did not seem to be distressed, not even 

 the gentleman who "walked in with the crowd." 

 He had been out-paced, that was all, and in a 

 short time I make no doubt they would have all 

 been ready for another run. Yet mark the folly 

 of our modern busybodies. Said one of the com- 

 petitors to me, " They want to stop our fell races ; 

 they say it is cruel to us and injurious. Injurious," 

 he added, slapping his chest with his brawny arms, 

 "look at me after the race," and I may add that 

 he was not the winner, and that he had not, in 

 racing parlance, turned a hair. 



It goes without saying that those who hunt on 

 foot on Cumbrian and Westmoreland fells must 

 often do a good deal by ear. In the first place 

 there is a great deal of covert ; then hounds must, 

 through covering a great deal more ground than 

 their followers, travel very much faster. But the 

 dalesman's skill in woodcraft, his quick ear and 

 keen eye, when it has a chance of being called 

 into request, and his intuitive knowledge of 

 the probable run of a fox, always serve him in 

 good stead, and he generally succeeds in getting to 

 the end of the run. And even then his labours 

 are far from being ended. In such a country 

 earth-stopping is difficult, and in many places it is 



