"FRESHER" PEASE AND "JUDY" CAEE-ELLISON 153 



same help to be got at a check, from holloas, or by information, as 

 from some one out of a following of 50 or 60 or perhaps more. 

 And so one had to depend more on one's own eyes, and think, too, 

 which way a hare would most likely go, and watch the sheep to see 

 if they had been suddenly disturbed (or scarred as we locally term 

 it) by the hare running past them. Then, too, the country though 

 steep is all fine sound grass land, which is easier to run over than 

 the Cambridgeshire ploughs, especially when they are heavy after a 

 frost, and you carry nearly half a field on each boot. I had very 

 good sport beagling there, and I remember one exceptionally fine 

 run of 3^ hours (never changed), and killed an old Jack hare at the 

 finish. I think Alan Burns (Trinity), who was my 3rd Whip when 

 I was Master in '88-'89, and Guthrie Watson, who was staying with 

 us at Hedgeley, were out. 



The reference to the weight of the Cambridgeshire plough is 

 amusing to such as remember the writer running over it. He was 

 rather under the middle height, and slow, and his feet, or at any 

 rate the very wide welted shoes that covered them, were noticeably 

 large in proportion, and he ran with bent knees, lifting his feet 

 but little from the ground, perhaps because he lifted so much ground 

 with his feet. His running, however, or rather jogging, was such that 

 he could keep up the same pace from the first find till dark, and 

 four days a week, and he never seemed to tire, but would shog 

 steadily on with plenty of spare wind for voice and horn, casting his 

 hounds at a check while the field were all glad enough of a breathing 

 space. His big broad shoes no doubt acted as skis do on snow 

 by preventing his sinking into the wet heavy clay, but the amount 

 they picked up was incredible, and after he had been going for half 

 an hour over wet ground, he made a perfect picture, and one which I 

 have ventured to draw. 



I remember, too, that when after a hard run we had broken up 

 our hare, there was often the query, "Any chap got a drop of 

 whisky ? " Flasks were willingly proffered, and, one favoured one 

 tasted, we would then spread out at once and draw for a fresh 

 hare. Beaglers never " trained " or did anything " athletic," and the 



