Hare-Hunting and Harriers : with Notices of Beagles and Basset Hounds
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THE -HDrrnNG -uzmss: HHREHDNTIN6 HnDHflECIERS Ha-BRYDE ^-vJ. JOHNA.SEAVERNS TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 3 9090 014 537 142 Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University 200 Westboro Road NorthGrafton, MA 01536 T'he Hunting Library EDITED BY F. G. AFLALO, F.R.G.S^ F.Z^. Volume I HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS The Hunting Library Edited by F. G. AFLALO, F.R.G.S. Profusely illustrated, stnall dewy ^vo, cloth gilt, -js. dd. net each 7'olume I HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS BY H. A. BRYDEN Autlior of " Gun and Camera in Southern Africa," &c. II FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES BY T. F. DALE, M.A. Author of " The History of the Belvoir Hunt," &c. Ill THE MASTER OF HOUNDS C. F. UNDERBILL " Author of " A Century of Fox-Hunting With contributions by Lord Ribblesdale, Lt. -Colonel G. C. Ricardo, Arthur Heinemann, John Scott, &c. London : GRANT RICHARDS 48 Leicester Square, W.C. J'lOiii (in c ngniTini; of the orii;iiiai pnintiui; lunv in tiic .\atn'iuii /oil>,iit (,nlii>y WILLIAM SOMERVILE AUTHOR OK "the CHACK" Platk I HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS WITH NOTICES OF BEAGLES AND BASSET HOUNDS BY H. A. BRYDEN AUTHOR OF 'GUN AND CAMERA IN SOUTHERN AFRICA," "NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA," ETC. ETC. ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY R. B. LODGE AND OTHERS LONDON GRANT RICHARDS 48 LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C. 1903 3 1 '\o3 TO SIR JOHN HEATHCOAT AMORY OF KNIGHTSHAYES COURT, TIVERTON, DEVON BARONET A VETERAN MASTER OF HARRIERS THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR EDITOR'S PREFACE In the following pages a keen all-round sportsman has given what may claim to be in the nature of an exhaustive account, both practical and historic, of hare-hunting. While he has not hesitated to draw on the works of such classic authorities as Somervile, Beckford and " Stonehenge," it is mainly to his own personal knowledge of a fine sport, supplemented where necessary by information generously given by living authorities, including many Masters of existing packs of harriers, beagles, or bassets, that his book owes its extraordinary interest. What is likely, over and above the great pains which Mr. Bryden has evidently taken with his record, to strike the reader is the hopeful tone of his remarks. He could not, of course, blind himself to the prejudicial effect of the spread of bricks and mortar, or to certain conditions of modern agriculture, which tend to limit the opportunities for hunting hare. Like other wild animals, the hare has unavoidably retired from the vili EDITOR'S PREFACE environs of our growing towns. We no longer expect to see wild hares at large in the Regent's Park, where once they were so abundant that the Zoological Society had to erect a hare-proof fence round its Gardens, to prevent the park hares breaking through and eating the flowers. That would have been about the time when Queen Victoria came to the throne ; and less than a century earlier snipe were seen in Conduit Street and wildfowl in Pimlico, while the bark of the fox sounded on moonlight nights from the fastnesses of Kensington Gardens. Those times are gone, and with them the wild creatures have in great measure passed. Even so, however, Mr. Bryden is hopeful, and his prophetic eye sees future generations of his hare-hunting countrymen, after the smoke from our manufacturing centres has stifled the last British hare, repairing, with the aid of some as yet undreamt means of rapid travel, for week-end hunts to Tierra del Fuego or the Asiatic tundras, in pursuit of merry hares that continue to flourish in purer air. The author has certainly made out a good case for the strong appeal of his favourite sport to keen sportsmen and sportswomen of all ages, of moderate means, and of proficiency in the saddle or otherwise. He has also indicates how considerable tracts of suitable country in this island are still unexploited by harriers or other dogs entered to hare. The distribu- tion of that animal is admittedly irregular, for whereas EDITOR'S PREFACE ix it is so plentiful in some parts of the country that even enthusiastic hare-hunters welcome an occasional coursing meeting as a check on excessive numbers, in others, owing chiefly to the operation of the Ground Game Act, it seems near extinction. Still, as Mr. Bryden shows, it should be no very difficult matter to establish hare warrens or turn down hares and thus restore a good show of game. If the plan of these volumes admitted of an Author's Preface, I feel sure that Mr. Bryden would take the opportunity of tendering his best thanks to the many Masters of Harriers and others who have so ungrudgingly helped with their knowledge and with their cameras to make the book what it is. F. G. A. CONTENTS PAGE I. Chiefly Historical I II. Hare-Hunters of the Past 19 III. The Hare and its Ways 37 IV. The Old-Time Hare-Hound 60 V. Modern Harriers . 74 VI. Modern Hare-Hunting 97 VII. A Glance AT English Packs—Northumberland TO Oxfordshire 117 VIII. A Glance at English Packs {continued)—The South and West of England 136 IX. Sport in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland 154 X. Concerning Kennels 174 XI. Hound Management 188 XII. Hunt Servants and their Duties 202 XIII. Cost and Equipment 2X6 XIV. Some Notable Runs and Curious Anecdotes 228 XV. Hunting with Foot-Harriers 249 XVI. Some Runs with Foot-Harriers 263 XVII. Beagles and Beagling .... 275 XVIII. Sport with Basset Hounds 290 XIX. The Future of Hare-Hunting . 308 Appendices 323 Index 357 ILLUSTRATIONS Toface page " I. William Somervile, author of " The Chace Fi-ontispiece II. Hare-Hunting, 1798 : Unkennelling—Drawing 12 III. Hare-Hunting, 179S : The Find—The Death . 24 IV. Old English Harriers : The Haldon 61 V. Pepper and Scarteen Beagle .... 70 VI. Watchman and Farmer, Rattler and Rutland . 82 VII. Aldenham Harriers 100 VIII. Col. Robertson Aikman's and Holcombe Harriers 122 IX. Mr. H. Hawkins' Harriers .... 132 X. Aldenham and Bexhill Harriers 138 XI. The Bexhill Harriers 142 XII. The Crickhowell Harriers .... 154 XIII. Mrs. Pryse-Rice and her Harriers . 158 XIV. Tara Harriers, 1899 164 " XV. " Sally " and " At the Kennels 180 XVI. The Holcombe Harriers 190 XVII. Going to a Holloa!—A Stern Chase 200 XVIII. Kennel Huntsman and Whip cycling to the Meet 208 XIX. The Foxbush Harriers 225 XX. Hailsham Harriers 234 XXI. "The Death," " Going Home" 254 XXII. Bushey Heath Beagles, " Regent," and " Priestess " 282 XXIII. Walhampton Basset Hounds 296 —• CHAPTER I CHIEFLY HISTORICAL Antiquity of hare-hunting—Roland's horn—James I.'s harriers — Queen Ehzabeth — Hunting bishops— Nicholas Coxe on hare-hunting—Old statutes The English squires—Somervile and his hounds His huntsman Hoitt—Somervile, the father of modern sport—His lifelike description of hare- hunting—Peter Beckford on harriers—Journey of his pack of beagles—Various schools of hare- hunters—Paucity of writers on this sport HARE-hunting can claim a more respectable antiquity even than the chase of the fox. It may be doubted whether Tickell, the poet, is correct when he designates that mighty hunter, Nimrod, a follower of the timid hare as well as of the noblest of great game, two thousand years before the Christian era. He says of that kingly sportsman : " Bold Nimrod first the Lion's Trophies wore, Panther bound, and lanc'd the bristling The Boar ; He taught to turn the Hare, to bay the Deer, And wheel the Courser in his mid Career." Whether or not Nimrod occasionally descended to the pursuit of the hare, it is certain that this form of chase is a sufficiently ancient one. Xenophon, who flourished three hundred and fifty years before the birth of Christ, hunted hare with as much enthusiasm as our English squires of the eighteenth century, and has left minute A 2 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS her habits, accounts of the sport, describing the hare and has the early morning trail, the find and the chase. He ways. some curious observations upon the hare and her than The scent of young hares, he tells us, is stronger that the that of the full-grown animal, for the reason at weakness of their limbs permits the whole body as times to touch the earth. He has a theory that, she employs the hare's tail is of no aid to her in steering, the ear upon for this purpose her long ears, laying down rush at her that side from which the hound makes his behind. and, turning instantly, leaving her pursuers hounds, He has much to say concerning the treatment of and he recommends that the young entry should be There permitted to tear their quarry when run into. Xenophon are also directions against straggling, and that bane seems to have had a particular objection to of all masters, the skirter. time Kings, warriors, and statesmen have, from immemorial, been enthusiastically devoted to all forms sport with the of hunting. That they did not despise considering the extra- hare is abundantly clear. Nor, she ordinary resourcefulness of this animal, the sport the provides, the mazes she weaves in her flight, and extreme interest of the chase which she affords, can success- the fine qualities required in hounds which beast of chase, fully cope with so fleet and cunning a during his campaigns is this surprising. Edward III., of harriers as well in France, maintained sixty couples as the same number of staghounds. with The greatest heroes seem to have found sport the battle of the hare acceptable to their natures.