Mr. Crozier- s Hounds. 109 



again. On an average, ten brace are killed in the 

 season. The field varies from half-a-dozen to two 

 score of pedestrians, according to the population of 

 the district. Horsemen seldom venture, as the bogs 

 and fells would be too much for them. Twelve years 

 ago these hounds ran a fox from Skiddaw, and next 

 morning they were discovered asleep near Coniston 

 Crag. He was found about two P.M., and after two 

 or three rings he went away by Millbeck and Apple- 

 thwaite, past Crosthwaite Church and Portinscale, to 

 Sir John Woodford's cover, from which he stole along 

 Catbells, through all the rocky ground in Borrowdale, 

 then away to Black Hill in Ulpha, where he went to 

 earth about midnight. Some of the shepherds in the 

 Vale heard the pack marking him at the earth, but 

 before they got there he had bolted towards Brough- 

 ton-in-Furness. From point to point, the run was 

 thirty-five miles, and it would be quite safe to add 

 twelve or fifteen more for the rings and the up-hill and 

 down-dale journeys. It was through the most rugged 

 part of the lake district, and no one ever knew whether 

 the fox, like Sir Roger de Coverley, " made a good 

 end of it" in the huntsman's sense of the word. Runs 

 of from three to four hours are not unfrequent, and as 

 the fox, with the open fells before him, is very loth to 

 leave the one on which he was bred, he runs in circles 

 like a hare. They are of all sorts and sizes, and nearly 

 all shades of colour, and in pretty settled weather the 

 scent is as good, if not better, on the mountains than 

 anywhere else. Tongue is very desirable, and Mr. 

 Crozier's strain of harrier blood enables him to keep 

 his basses and tenors in perfection. 



The Saddleback, or more properly the Blencathra 

 range, has no cover for a fox except the rocks, a little 

 ling, and a few juniper bushes among the heather. 

 The base of Skiddaw, including the Dodd and the 

 Barfe, is best covered with larch and whins. The 

 Castlerigg, Borrowdale, and Armboth Fells have 



