50 



THE TEINITY FOOT BEAGLES 



pack of beagles which I kept at St. John's in 18G5. I had about six 

 couples, and we liunted hares. We could only get leave to go to a 

 few places, and could very seldom kill a hare. 



Our record day was at S waff ham Prior, on a farm occupied by a 

 Mr. Watt, when we killed two hares, running each for about an hour. 

 We ran over part of Newmarket Heath with one hare. The hares 

 in those parts are very strong. We rode ponies that day. [The first 

 recorded Eiding Day. — F. 0. K.] 



The beagles were a scratch lot, but there were some very good 

 ones among them. The puppies from one sold at high prices and 

 took a number of prizes. — I am, yours truly, 



(Signed) H. H. Bagnall. 



This letter, taken by itself, would give one to suppose that Mr. 

 Bagnall's was a private pack, having no connection with the Foot 

 Drag, especially as only hares were hunted. But 

 Dr. Fenwick's second letter makes the point clear 

 that this was the " Foot Drag." The number of 

 hounds further corresponds. This last is of im- 

 portance, as it will be seen in later chapters how 

 unreliable memory of events of thirty years past is, 

 and what extraordinarily conflicting statements one 

 receives concerning what is evidently the same 

 incident. 



The affairs of this early time are, however, 

 simple and easily pieced together. A small scratch 

 pack was kept without much formality Ijy first 

 Robert Hoare, then Courtney Tracey, and finally 

 Bagnall, the series closing in 1865, and so leaving 

 an interregnum of one season, 1866-67, before the 

 present pack was started by Currey. But several 

 points are obscure. Was there an interregnum 

 between Hoare and Courtney Tracey, and were they 

 different packs? It is clear tliat Mr. Courtney 

 Tracey made a new start of some sort, and no reading of the docu- 

 ments can carry us any further, nor can their contributors be further 



The Master of the 

 Foot Drag. 



