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- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
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Seitenzahl: 471
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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HARE HUNTING AND HARRIERS
H.A Bryden
WAXKEEP PUBLISHING
Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please show the author some love.
This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2015 by H.A Bryden
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hare Hunting and Harriers
EDITOR’S PREFACE
CHAPTER I.CHIEFLY HISTORICAL
CHAPTER II.HARE-HUNTERS OF THE PAST
CHAPTER III.THE HARE AND ITS WAYS
CHAPTER IV.THE OLD-TIME HAREHOUND
CHAPTER V.MODERN HARRIERS
CHAPTER VI.MODERN HARE-HUNTING
CHAPTER VII.A GLANCE AT ENGLISH PACKS—NORTHUMBERLAND TO OXFORDSHIRE
CHAPTER VIII.A GLANCE AT ENGLISH PACKS (continued)
Gloucestershire—Boddington harriers—A noted pack—The Longford—The Home Counties—Aldenham harriers—Mr. Quare’s—Kent and its ten packs—Surrey—Sussex—The Bexhill and Hailsham: two packs of old-fashioned harriers—Brighton and Brookside packs—Lady Gifford’s harriers—Another lady huntsman—Hants—The Isle of Wight—Dorset devoid of harriers—Wilts Somerset packs—The Cotley—Mr. Eames on “pure harriers”—Devon and its fifteen packs
CHAPTER IX.SPORT IN WALES, IRELAND, AND SCOTLAND
CHAPTER X.CONCERNING KENNELS
CHAPTER XI.HOUND MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER XII.HUNT SERVANTS AND THEIR DUTIES
CHAPTER XIII.COST AND EQUIPMENT
CHAPTER XIV.SOME NOTABLE RUNS AND CURIOUS ANECDOTES
CHAPTER XV.HUNTING WITH FOOT-HARRIERS
CHAPTER XVI.SOME RUNS WITH FOOT-HARRIERS
CHAPTER XVII.BEAGLES AND BEAGLING
CHAPTER XVIII.SPORT WITH BASSET HOUNDS
CHAPTER XIX.THE FUTURE OF HARE-HUNTING
HARE HUNTING AND HARRIERS
BY H.A BRYDEN
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 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 distribution of that animal is admittedly irregular, for whereas 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.
CHAPTER I.CHIEFLY HISTORICAL
ANTIQUITY OF HARE-HUNTING—ROLAND’S HORN—JAMES I.’S HARRIERS—QUEEN ELIZABETH—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,
The Panther bound, and lanc’d the bristling 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 accounts of the sport, describing the hare and her habits, the early morning trail, the find and the chase. He has some curious observations upon the hare and her ways. The scent of young hares, he tells us, is stronger than that of the full-grown animal, for the reason that the weakness of their limbs permits the whole body at times to touch the earth. He has a theory that, as the hare’s tail is of no aid to her in steering, she employs for this purpose her long ears, laying down the ear upon that side from which the hound makes his rush at her and, turning instantly, leaving her pursuers behind. He has much to say concerning the treatment of hounds, and he recommends that the young entry should be permitted to tear their quarry when run into. There are also directions against straggling, and Xenophon seems to have had a particular objection to that bane of all masters, the skirter.
Kings, warriors, and statesmen have, from time immemorial, been enthusiastically devoted to all forms of hunting. That they did not despise sport with the hare is abundantly clear. Nor, considering the extraordinary resourcefulness of this animal, the sport she provides, the mazes she weaves in her flight, the extreme interest of the chase which she affords, and the fine qualities required in hounds which can successfully cope with so fleet and cunning a beast of chase, is this surprising. Edward III., during his campaigns in France, maintained sixty couples of harriers as well as the same number of staghounds.
The greatest heroes seem to have found sport with the hare acceptable to their natures. At the battle of Roncesvalles, when Charlemagne hears from afar off the distant blast of Roland’s horn, he is eager to march instantly to his rescue, believing that the young paladin must be in sore jeopardy. But the traitor, Ganélon, to whom the Moors owed their victory on that fatal day, palters with him and puts him off. “For a hare,” he says, “would Roland sound his horn all day, and at this moment he is most likely laughing with his twelve Peers over the fright he has caused us.”
James I., although by no means an admirable king, had, to his credit, a real love of hunting in all its branches. He certainly kept harriers as well as staghounds, and among the expenses of his establishment are to be found the following entries:
£
s.
d.
“To Sir Patrick Howme, Master of the Privy Harriers, for his fee 120l. per annum, and for keeping one footman, four horses, and twenty Couple of Dogs, 100l. per annum
220
0
0
To Richard Gwynne, Groom of the Harriers to the Prince, 13d. per diem, and twenty shillings per annum for his Livery
20
15
0
To John Waters, Yeoman of the Harriers to the King, twelve pence per diem
18
5
0
Robert Rayne, Serjeant of the King’s Buckhounds, received 50 per annum; in addition, as one of the Yeomen of the Privy Harriers, he drew £36 yearly.
Queen Elizabeth kept “Buck Hounds,” “Hart Hounds,” “Hunting Harriers,” and “Otter Hounds.” Among her expenses are to be found the following:
£
s.
d.
Master of the Harriers Fee
11
6
0
Yeoman’s Fee
6
0
0
Officers and others serving under the same Master, Wages and Allowances
79
1
8
Total
96
7
8
Otter-hounds cost her, apparently, no more than £13 6s. 8d. per annum for Master’s fee; probably servants of the other packs were employed with otter in summer. Buckhounds cost £92 9s. 2d. and Hart hounds £38 1s. 5d., so that it is apparent that Queen Elizabeth’s harriers were reckoned at least as important as any other part of her hunting establishment. The hare, however, was always held from very early ages in a highly honourable estimation as a beast of chase; far more so, in fact, than the fox, which, until towards the end of the seventeenth century, was classed merely as vermin to be destroyed anyhow and anywhere.
Down to the time of the Reformation, not only the noblemen and gentry, but churchmen of almost every degree—save the poorer priests—hunted. Many of the higher dignitaries maintained great state and devoted most of their time to field sports. Walter, Bishop of Rochester, who flourished in the thirteenth century, and lived to the age of eighty, made hunting his sole occupation, “to the total neglect of the duties of his office.” Becket, on his embassy to the Court of France, took with him hounds and hawks, and no doubt used them freely. The greater dignitaries of the Church saw to it that they had ample hunting-grounds. At the date of the Reformation the See of Norwich possessed no less than thirteen parks, “well stocked with deer and other animals of the chase.” Even in Charles I.’s time, Bishop Juxon was a keen follower of the chase; he maintained a good pack of hounds, “and had them so well ordered and hunted,” says Whitlock, “chiefly by his own skill and direction, that they exceeded all other hounds in England.” Parsons still hunt in England, but it must, one fancies, be considerably more than a hundred years since a Bishop went out with hounds—even with a quiet pack of harriers!
In the “Gentleman’s Recreation,” published by Nicholas Cox in 1677, there is much curious and odd information on hare-hunting, among other field sports, compiled, I believe, chiefly from authors before his time. Here are samples of the quaint Cox’s lore. “We say the Deer is broke up. The Fox and Hare is cased.” In those days it was the custom to divest the hare of her skin when killed, and, the gall and lights being taken away—under the impression that they made hounds sick—the huntsman, who carried some bread, cut up into small pieces, dipped these in the blood and gave them with the entrails to the hounds. The hare was after this broken up and given among the pack, and if any young hound was too timid to come in and take his share, he was presented with the head. The modern custom of giving hounds the entrails and handing the hare over to the farmer upon whose land she was found, is surely a much more seemly and profitable way of dealing with the dead quarry.
To return to Nicholas Cox. Among “Terms for the Footing and Treading of all Beasts of Venery and Chase,” he says: “Of a hare, diversely, for when she is in open field she soreth; when she winds about to deceive the Hounds then she doubleth; when she beateth on the Hard Highway, and her footing can be perceived, then she pricketh; and in the snow it is called the Trace of the Hare.”
Concerning tracking hares in the snow, by the way, there used to be a special Statute, 14 & 15 Hen. VIII. cap. 10, which provided as follows: “None shall trace, destroy or kill any Hare in the Snow, in pain of 6s. 8d. for every such Offence; which penalty assessed in Sessions shall go to the King; but in a Leet, to the Lord thereof.” Whether this ordinance has ever been repealed I know not; probably it has. An earlier Act of Richard II.’s reign—13 Rich. II. cap. 13—set forth that “No man who hath not lands of 40s. per annum, nor Clerk who hath not 10l. revenue per annum shall have or keep any Grey-hound, Hound, Dog, Ferret, Net or Engine to destroy Deer, Hares, Coneys, or any other Gentleman’s Game, in pain of one whole year’s imprisonment, which Justices of Peace have power to inflict.”
The boar and wolf were in process of time exterminated in these islands, and wild deer, except on the moorlands of the West—Exmoor chiefly—and the fells of Cumberland and Westmoreland, became more and more difficult to find. Sportsmen were thus reduced to hunting the semi-feral deer of their own parks, a form of sport which, by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, French writers upon Venery already referred to with some contempt. With the decline of deer, it is certain that the chase of the hare assumed much more importance, and by the seventeenth century it is clear that hare-hunting was a sport held in high favour among English squires. During this and the eighteenth century it seems to have been the custom among country gentlemen to keep a mixed kennel of hounds, with which they pursued hare, otter, and occasionally fox, as it pleased them. By the early years of the eighteenth century the fox had emerged from its once low estimation and was beginning to be hunted regularly. The foxhound proper had now been evolved, and from the middle of the eighteenth century it may be said that fox-hunting increased more and more in favour until it had quite outstripped in popularity the chase of the hare.
William Somervile, the author of “The Chace,” undoubtedly the finest poem on hunting in the English language, was a typical squire of his time. He flourished between 1677 and 1742, residing, after the age of twenty-seven, when he resigned his Fellowship at New College, Oxford, upon his own estate of Edstone, in Warwickshire. Edstone, in the parish of Wootton Wawen, lies in the very heart of Shakespeare’s country, about seven miles from Stratford-on-Avon, and about four from Henley-in-Arden. Here Somervile, during many long and happy years, devoted himself, heart and soul, to the sport of hunting, rousing in turn hare, fox, and otter from their various lurking-places. “The site of his kennel,” says a writer in the Sporting Magazine of February 1832, “was well chosen, on a little eminence erect, facing the south-east, with a grove of willow, poplar and elm at the back, to shield it from the north and west winds. The kennel was spacious, with a fine brook babbling through. He kept about twelve couple of beagles, bred chiefly between the small Cotswold harrier and the Southern hound; six couple of foxhounds, rather rough and wire-haired; and five couple of otter-hounds, which in the winter season made an addition to the foxhounds.” In this passage “beagle” should read “harrier” and vice versâ. The mating of the slow, ponderous Southern hound with the fleet Cotswold beagle would produce a first-rate harrier, and that, undoubtedly, was the strain cultivated by Somervile. The coupling of Southern hound and harrier would not produce beagle, but, conversely. Southern hound and beagle would produce harrier. This strain, by the way—Southern hound and beagle—is still plainly apparent, sometimes crossed with a dash of the foxhound, in most of the old-fashioned packs of pure harriers still hunting in the United Kingdom. For the chase of the hare there is nothing to surpass it. “The country he hunted,” continues the same writer, “was chiefly woodland, except that where his beagles were generally thrown off; and every parish, being uninclosed, yielded excellent sport. To the feeding of his hounds, and the management and arrangement of his kennels, he attended himself. . . . He conducted the chase himself; leaving a man in the kennel to prepare the food, who was in the capacity of earth-stopper. His stud was small, four nags being the greatest number he ever had in the stable; employing his favourite, Old Ball, three times in the week. Old Ball was a real good English hunter, standing about fifteen hands high, with black legs, short back, high in the shoulders, large barrel, thin head, cropped ears, and a white blaze down the face.”
These particulars were communicated to the writer of the article in question by a Warwickshire man, who had himself been entered to hunting by Somervile’s old huntsman, John Hoitt, who survived his master more than half a century and died in 1802. William Somervile lies, together with two of his huntsmen, Jacob Boeter and John Hoitt, in Wootton Wawen churchyard. Until the year 1898 no memorial of him existed; but in that year, thanks to the exertions of the Rev. F. T. Bramston, Vicar of Wootton, a tablet was subscribed for and erected inside the church. On the tomb of his last huntsman may be seen the following lines, composed by the Rev. J. Eaches, a former vicar:
“Here Hoitt, all his sports and labours past,
Joins his loved Master, Somervile, at last;
Together went they, echoing fields to try,
Together now in silent dust they lie.
Servant and lord, when once we yield our breath.
Huntsman and poet, are alike to Death.
Life’s motley drama calls for powers and men
Of different casts, to fill its changeful scene;
But all the merit that we justly prize,
Not in the past but in the acting lies.
And as the lyre, so may the huntsman’s horn
Fame’s trumpet rival, and his name adorn.”
The quiet country church of Wootton Wawen, the last resting-place of one of the keenest and best sportsmen that ever crossed a horse, sounded a horn, or cheered his hounds, of the man whose poem, “The Chace,” will remain a classic so long as the English tongue endures, is surely worthy of a pilgrimage by any lover of hunting who happens to be within a score or two of miles!
Somervile’s custom of hunting both hare and fox during the winter season was commonly followed by most country gentlemen of the eighteenth century. Somervile himself kept his hounds apart, and hunted hare and fox with harriers and foxhounds, reinforcing, as we have seen, the latter during the proper season with his otter-hounds, which were then unemployed. He says in “The Chace”:
“A different hound for ev’ry diff’rent chace
Select with judgment; nor the tim’rous hare
O’er-matched destroy, but leave that vile offence
To the mean, murd’rous coursing crew, intent
On blood and spoil. O blast their hopes just Heav’n.”
The poet seems to have had a peculiar hatred for coursing, a sentiment which in these days has largely disappeared, although, for obvious reasons, hare-hunters are not over-fond of greyhounds and their masters.
Somervile may truthfully be styled the father of modern hunting. Before his time writers on sport employed an archaic and cumbrous style, now obsolete for centuries, and difficult and fatiguing of comprehension even by the most devoted student of hunting literature. Somervile inaugurates a completely new era. His spirit is largely modern, his style easy, clear and flowing; even at the present day it is a real pleasure to read his graphic descriptions and stirring pictures. To the hare-hunter, especially, his volume must always be invaluable; his instructions on kennel and hound management are sound and practical, and may be referred to with advantage even by the modern master or huntsman. We pass with him, as it were, from the Middle Ages to Modern England in the palmiest days of sport. It is a supreme test of Somervile’s merit that Beckford, himself the greatest classic on hunting down to the present day, so frequently refers to “The Chace” and quotes so freely from it. There can be no doubt whatever that the author of “The Chace,” although he describes with equal facility, spirit, and truth fox-hunting and the chase of stag and otter, loved hare-hunting beyond all other forms of sport. In the second book of his poem are to be found descriptions of a hare hunt which are destined, probably, never to be surpassed. I cannot refrain from quoting a few of his brilliant pictures. After some opening lines he leads his reader to the countryside:
“Now golden autumn from her open lap
Her fragrant bounty show’rs; the fields are shorn;
Inwardly smiling, the proud farmer views
The rising pyramids that grace his yard,
And counts his large increase; his barns are stor’d
And groaning staddles bend beneath their load.
All now is free as air, and the gay pack
In the rough, bristly stubbles range unblam’d;
No widow’s tears o’erflow, no secret curse
Swells in the farmer’s breast, which his pale lips
Trembling conceal, by his fierce landlord aw’d;
But courteous now he levels ev’ry fence,
Joins in the common cry, and holloas loud,
Charm’d with the rattling thunder of the field.
Oh bear me, some kind power invisible!
. . . to those spacious plains, where the strain’d eye
In the wide prospect lost, beholds at last
Sarum’s proud spire, that o’er the hill ascends,
And pierces thro’ the clouds. Or to thy downs
Fair Cotswold, where the well-breath’d beagle climbs,
With matchless speed, thy green aspiring brow,
And leaves the lagging multitude behind.”
Somervile, in addition to his Warwickshire property, had an estate—that of Somervile-Aston—in Gloucestershire, and it is certain frequently hunted there. All his touches are lifelike and most natural, even to the casual reader of 1903. Hunters saddled up and rode forth earlier in 1735—the date of the poem—than they do at the present day. They loved the long trailing of the hare to her seat, a part of the chase long since abandoned. He continues:
“Farewell, Cleora, here deep sunk in down.
Slumber secure, with happy dreams amus’d.
Till grateful steams shall tempt thee to receive
Thy early meal, or thy officious maids,
The toilet plac’d, shall urge thee to perform
The important work. Me other joys invite.
The horn sonorous calls, the pack awak’d
Their matins chant, nor brook my long delay.”
Now comes the meet:
“Delightful scene!
Where all around is gay, men, horses, dogs.
And in each smiling countenance appears
Fresh blooming health and universal joy.”
They throw off, and presently hounds find a trail. The hare is put off gently from her seat:
“Here huntsman bring
(But without hurry) all thy jolly hounds.
And calmly lay them on. How low they stoop.
And seem to plough the ground; then all at once
With greedy nostrils snuff the fuming steam.
The welkin rings, men, dogs, hills, rocks, and woods.
In the full concert join!”. . .
Here follows some sound advice:
“Huntsman! her gait observe: if in wide rings
She wheel her mazy way, in the same round
Persisting still, she’ll foil the beaten track.
But if she fly, and with the fav’ring wind
Urge her bold course, less intricate thy task:
Push on thy pack.”
The chase goes on:
“The puzzling pack unravel, wile by wile,
Maze within maze. The covert’s utmost bound
Slyly she skirts; behind then cautious creeps.
And in that very track, so lately stain’d
By all the steaming crowd, seems to pursue
The foe she flies.”
How true a picture is this, and this again:
“But hold—I see her from the covert break;
Sad on yon little eminence she sits;
Intent she listens, with one ear erect,
Pond’ring and doubtful what new course to take,
And how t’ escape the fierce bloodthirsty crew
That still urge on and still in volleys loud
Insult her woes. . . .
. . . . . her fears prevail.
And o’er the plain, and o’er the mountain’s ridge
Away she flies.”
The huntsmen “smoke along the vale,” the old hounds now begin to come to the front, as they will do when the chase is sinking; a check ensues, caused by a flock of sheep, the line is recovered, and away, after another slight check, they drive.
“Now the poor chace
Begins to flag, to her last shifts reduc’d.
From brake to brake she flies, and visits all
Her haunts.”
The end comes, and the kill and obsequies are described. By Somervile’s time, it is clear, the hare was not “cased,” or skinned, broken up and thrown to the pack, but dealt with according to present methods—the hounds being rewarded with the heart and entrails only.
No prose description of a hare hunt—and the writer has read many hundreds in his time—can possibly eclipse Somervile’s blank verse. The whole poem abounds in the most faithful and minute pictures of hunting, and it ought to be in the hands of every sportsman, by whom it may still be perused not only with pleasure but with great profit.
Peter Beckford, whose “Thoughts on Hunting” are to this hour held in so great estimation by all concerned with the chase of fox and hare, was born in 1740, and succeeded to a handsome fortune and estate on the death of his father, Julines Beckford, whose forbears had gathered wealth in the West Indies. Beckford, a man of culture and attainments considerably beyond the squires of his day, was Member for Morpeth in 1768 and had travelled abroad. He was manifestly a first-rate sportsman, understanding thoroughly the whole process and economy of hunting, hounds, and horses. He lived in a fine old Georgian or Queen Anne Mansion at Steepleton-Iwerne, in Dorsetshire, and hunted for the most part in Cranbourne Chase, of which he was Ranger. The country in which he hunted is apparently identical with that now used by the South Dorset foxhounds. Mr. Otho Paget, in his excellent edition of Beckford, published in 1899, gives some interesting details concerning this classic author. He gives also some very interesting pictures of Steepleton-Iwerne (which is still inhabited by descendants of Beckford—the Misses Pitt, his great-granddaughters)—of Beckford himself, and of his favourite horses and hounds.
Beckford’s great book was published in 1781. It was soon recognised as a standard work—one may say the standard work—on hunting, and has retained its authority and its popularity down to the present day. Beckford, like Somervile, had a touch of the modern spirit, he wrote easily and well, with a vein of pleasantly caustic humour; and although it is one hundred and twenty-five years since his volume first appeared, he can be read with pleasure by the reader of the twentieth century, while his facts and inferences are practically as valuable now as when they were first perused. Many editions testify to the high estimation in which “Thoughts on Hunting” has always been held.
Beckford was by choice a foxhunter, and the greater part of his book is devoted to that branch of the chase. He had, however, at one time kept harriers, and his letters on hare-hunting are to the full as pithy and as informing as the rest of his volume. He devoted three chapters—or letters—to the sport of hare-hunting, and his remarks may well be pondered even by the present-day harrier-man. Beckford bred his harriers between the large, slow, hunting harrier and the little fox-beagle; “the former,” he says, “are too dull, too heavy, and too slow; the latter too lively, too light, and too fleet.” The fox-beagle, it may be noted, was for generations employed, before the regular chase of the fox with foxhounds came into vogue; reynard being considered in those days as mere vermin, to be run to earth and knocked on the head as speedily as possible.
“The first species,” continues Beckford, “it is true, have excellent noses and, I make no doubt, will kill their game, at least if the day be long enough; but you know the days are short in winter, and it is bad hunting in the dark; the other, on the contrary, fling and dash and are all alive, but every cold blast affects them; and if your country be wet and damp, it is not impossible that some of them may be drowned. My hounds were a cross of both these kinds, in which it was my endeavour to get as much bone and strength in as small compass as possible. It was a difficult undertaking. I bred many years, and an infinity of hounds, before I could get what I wanted; I at last had the pleasure to see them very handsome; small yet bony; they ran remarkably well together; ran fast enough; had all the alacrity that you could desire; and would hunt the coldest scent. When they were thus perfect, I did as many others do—I parted with them.”
Beckford is always amusing. Many of his anecdotes, with which the book abounds, are first rate. He describes, comically enough, the procuring of some beagles—no doubt “the little beagles” already spoken of—from the North of England.
“Having heard of a small pack of beagles to be disposed of in Derbyshire,” he says, “I sent my coachman (the person whom I could at that time best spare to fetch them). It was a long journey, and not having been used to hounds, he had some trouble in getting them along; besides which, as ill-luck would have it, they had not been out of the kennel for many weeks before, and were so riotous, that they ran after every thing they saw; sheep, curdogs, and birds of all sorts, as well as hares and deer, I found, had been his amusement all the way along. However, he lost but one hound, and when I asked him what he thought of them, he said, ‘they could not fail of being good hounds, for they would hunt anything.’ ”
In Beckford’s time warren hares were often caught in traps and occasionally turned down before hounds and greyhounds, much as is a bag-fox with hounds at the present day. Beckford gives directions in his twelfth letter concerning the taking of these warren hares. Trap-hares are, thank Heaven, seldom heard of nowadays. Beckford himself, although he writes of the custom of his time, seems to have been averse to employing them for hunting. He recommended, if they were to be used, that they should be turned down wind, and the hounds hunted like a pack of foxhounds. A trapped hare almost invariably ran straight, made few or no doubles, and left a strong scent.
It has been said by many enthusiastic fox-hunters that Beckford took little account of hare-hunting. This is erroneous. He preferred fox-hunting, but he distinctly states in this letter (twelve) that he never meant to depreciate this excellent form of sport. “It is a good diversion,” he says, “in a good country: you are always certain of sport: and if you really love to see your hounds hunt, the hare, when properly hunted, will show you more of it than any other animal.”
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, even in Beckford’s time—he died in 1809—it was becoming the fashion to introduce a touch of foxhound blood into the old harrier strain. In fact the dwarf foxhound had certainly made his appearance as a harrier by the opening years of the nineteenth century. From that time there have been two schools of harrier-men in England: those who stick by the old harrier blood—produced, originally, as Somervile and Beckford produced their packs, by crossing the old Southern hound with the quick and nimble beagle—preferably the North-country beagle—and those who swear by foxhound blood, and will have it for hare-hunting, either pure, as in the case of the dwarf foxhound, or almost pure and but lightly crossed with the original harrier stock. These two schools of hare-hunters pursue and continue to pursue their quarry in widely different ways: the former content to hunt out, steadily but surely, the mazes and windings of the hare’s natural flight; the later pushing their quarry so hard that she has no leisure and is too hard pressed to display her usual antics, and is burst up in a third or half of the time usually occupied by harriers of pure blood. Each school has its ardent supporters. Personally, I am one of those who like to see the hare hunted in the old-fashioned manner; and without the least wishing to return to the days of the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth century, when followers of the old lumbering Southern hound spent half a dozen hours or more in running down their hare, I prefer a chase of an hour or more, with plenty of hound music—and your true harrier has a most beautiful and melodious voice—to a burst of twenty minutes, in which the quarry is completely overmastered and never has the faintest chance, which, in my opinion, she should have, of making her escape. Although many books have been written on hunting, it is astonishing how little learning is to be gathered concerning the chase of the hare. Somervile and Beckford to this hour remain almost our only masterpieces and authorities on this subject. “An Essay on Hunting,” by a Country Squire, published in 1733, contains some useful information; and Stonehenge’s “British Sports,” the Badminton Library volume on Hunting, and an article in the “Encyclopaedia of Sport,” also deal shortly with the subject. If I include a capital little volume on “Hare Hunting,” by “Tantara,” published in 1893, I have, I think, exhausted the list of authorities which may be consulted usefully by those desirous of informing themselves on the lore and lessons of this most excellent sport.
CHAPTER II.HARE-HUNTERS OF THE PAST
MODE OF HUNTING OF OUR ANCESTORS—THE SOUTHERN HOUND—SOME PORTRAITS OF OLD-TIME SPORTSMEN—THE HON. WILLIAM HASTINGS AND HIS ESTABLISHMENT—THE GREAT HALL—PARLOUR—CATS—THE OYSTER-TABLE—THE OLD CHAPEL AND ITS STRANGE USES—ONE OF THE LESSER GENTRY—HIS TIMBERED MANSION—CHRISTMASTIDE AND ITS PLEASURES—SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY AND HIS HOUNDS—A HARE-HUNT WITH THE WORTHY KNIGHT—HIS STOP-HOUNDS—A CURIOSITY IN HUNTING—AN ESSEX SQUIRE TEMPUS 1800—A CURIO AMONG HARE-HUNTERS—HARD DRINKERS—SOMERVILE’S MIXTURE—ANECDOTE OF A CHESHIRE SQUIRE—OLD-TIME HARRIER—OFTEN HUNTED FOX—SIR WATKIN WYNN’S PACK—TRANSITION FROM HARE-HUNTING TO FOX-HUNTING—TEMPORARY DECLINE OF HARRIERS
OUR ANCESTORS, AS I HAVE hinted, looked upon the chase of the hare as an operation to be conducted with what in these impatient days would be regarded as an unconscionable waste of time. Rising soon after the winter’s dawn, they sallied forth with their big, deep-flewed, deep-voiced, long-eared, Southern hounds—standing some twenty-four or twenty-six inches at the shoulder—and, finding, after some trouble, traces of the hare in its overnight’s wanderings, tracked it steadily to its form. They were not allowed to drive it from its seat; but the quarry, being at length discovered in its form, was pushed off and the hounds laid on, unless, as of course often happened, the hare had been already startled by the deep voices of its pursuers, drawing nearer and nearer, and had already slipped away. The Southern hound was what hunting-men of this day, and indeed of the last century, would consider far too much tied to the scent. Its sense of smell was so keen, its enjoyment of the scent so overpowering, that, instead of pushing along, as do the foxhound and modern harrier, and driving at its game, with the object of killing within some reasonable period—say an hour or two—it would actually sit down upon the line and, lifting up its deep mellow voice, pour forth its satisfaction and enjoyment upon the wintry air. It never had much pace, and with such interruptions—and they were by no means singular—it is not astounding to find that the hunt, under such conditions, especially if, as sometimes happened, fresh hares were put up, lasted hour after hour. Three hours in those days must have been reckoned a quick hare-hunt; more often than not the solemn chase went on until five, six, and occasionally even more had been consumed. After having killed their hare, if they had the luck to do so, the jolly sportsmen wended their ways homeward, and wound up the day with a portentous dinner and a carouse thereafter.
These sport-loving squires, slow though their methods and tedious their style of hunting, if compared with the chase of our own time, were, after all, lineal ancestors of the present race of fox- and hare-hunters and country gentlemen. If they had what seem to us defects from the modern point of view, they had, nevertheless, a score of excellent qualities. They were hearty, hospitable, jovial, full of the enjoyment of life; they stayed at home upon their acres and spent their money around them; they were good landlords, good farmers, great judges of stock and agriculture; and they had time and leisure to cultivate those domestic virtues which ensure pleasant homes and cheerful families. Some of them—by no means all—drank, it is true, more than was good for them. But, it is to be remembered, before the great French wars and the era of port-wine, the country gentleman, and especially those of the minor sort, drank ale for the most part, varied by claret and punch, and were not likely, therefore, to be so afflicted by gout and other ailments, as the three- or four-bottle men who came after them and drank the strong wine of Portugal. It will be, I think, not unprofitable to place before the reader one or two pictures of the hunting squires of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Here is one, taken from the life, by Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury, in his memoirs of the Honourable William Hastings.
“In the year 1638,” says Lord Shaftesbury, “lived Mr. Hastings at Woodlands, in the County of Southampton. By his quality, son, brother, and uncle to the Earls of Huntingdon. He was, peradventure, an original in our age, or rather the copy of our antient Nobility in hunting, not in warlike times. He was very low, strong, and active, with reddish flaxen hair. His clothes, which, when new, were never worth five pounds, were of Green cloth. His house was perfectly old-fashioned; in the midst of a large Park, well stocked with Deer and Rabbits, many Fish-ponds, a great store of wood and timber, a Bowling-green in it, long but narrow, full of high ridges, never having been levelled since it was ploughed; round sand Bowls were used, and it had a Banquetting house like a Stand, built in a tree.
“Mr. H. kept all manner of Hounds that run Buck, Fox, Hare, Otter and Badger; Hawks both long and short winged. He had all sorts of Nets for Fish. A walk in the New Forest, and the Manor of Christchurch; this last supplied him with Red Deer, Sea and River Fish; and, indeed, all his neighbours grounds and Royalties were free to him, who bestowed all his time on these Sports.” At his mansion were found “beef, pudding, and small beer, and a House not so neatly kept as to shame him (the neighbour) or his dirty shoes, the great Hall strewed with marrow bones, full of Hawks, Perches, Hounds, Spaniels, and Terriers; the upper side of the Hall hung with the Fox skins of this year and the last year’s killing, here and there a Martin Cat intermixed, and Game-keepers and Hunters poles in abundance.
“The Parlour was a large room as properly furnished. On a hearth, paved with brick, lay some Terriers, and the choicest Hounds and Spaniels. Seldom less than two of the great chairs had litters of Kittens on them, which were not to be disturbed, he always having three or four Cats attending him at dinner; and to defend such meat as he had no mind to part with, he kept order with a short white stick that lay by him. The windows, which were very large, served for places to lay his Arrows, Cross-bows, and other such accoutrements. The corners of the room were full of the best chose Hunting and Hawking poles. An Oyster table at the lower end, which was in constant use twice a day, all the year round, for he never failed to eat Oysters before Dinner and Supper, through all seasons. In the upper part of the room were two small tables and a desk; on the one side of the desk was a Church Bible, and on the other the Book of Martyrs. Upon the tables were Hawks-hoods, Bells, etc., two or three old green Hats, with their crowns thrust in, so as to hold ten or a dozen eggs, which were of a Pheasant-kind of poultry; these he took much care of, and fed himself. Tables, Boxes, Dice, Cards, were not wanting. In the holes of the desk was store of old used Tobacco pipes.
“On one side of this end of the room was the door of a Closet, wherein stood the strong Beer and the Wine, which never came thence but in single glasses, that being the rule of the house exactly observed; for he never exceeded in drinking, nor ever permitted it. On the other side was the door into an old Chapel, not used for devotion. The Pulpit, as the safest place, never wanted a cold Chine of Beef, Venison pasty, Gammon of bacon, or a great Apple pie, with a thick crust extremely baked. His table cost him not much, though it was always well supplied. His Sports furnished all but Beef and Mutton, except Fridays, when he had the best of salt as well as other Fish, he could get, and this was the day on which his neighbours of the first quality visited him. He never wanted a London pudding, and sung it in with ‘My pert Eyes therein a!’ He drank a glass or two at meals, very often syrup of Gilyflowers in his Sack, and always a tun glass stood by him, holding a pint of small beer, which he often stirred with Rosemary. He was affable but soon angry, calling his servants Bastards and Cuckoldy Knaves. He lived to be an Hundred, never lost his eyesight, but always wrote and read without spectacles, and got on Horseback without help. Until past Fourscore years, he rode up to the death of a Stag, as well as any man.” A portrait of this gentleman, who may be styled something of an eccentric and a character, even in his own age, was, and I believe still is, at Wimborne St. Giles, the seat of the Earl of Shaftesbury.
Here is another portrait, that of one of the lesser gentry, flourishing in the middle of the eighteenth century. It is given by Daniel, in his “Rural Sports,” published in 1801. “It may be excused,” says Mr. Daniel in his excellent book, “if the digression be continued for the purpose of sketching a Sportsman of the last age, as it may shew, that however we may have excelled in fashionable manners, it has been at the expense of abolishing a class of Men, who formed no inconsiderable link of the chain between the Peer and the Peasant in this Country. This Character, now worn out and gone, was the independent Gentleman, of three or four hundred pounds a-year, who commonly appeared in his Drab or Plush Coat, with large silver buttons, and rarely without Boots. His time was principally spent in Field amusements, and his travels never exceeded the distance of the County town, and that only at Assizes and Sessions, or to attend an Election. A Journey to London was, by one of these Men, reckoned as great an undertaking, as is at present a Voyage to the East Indies, and undertaken with scarce less precaution and preparation. At Church upon a Sunday he always appeared, never played at Cards but at Christmas, when he exchanged his usual beverage of Ale for a Bowl of strong Brandy Punch, garnished with a toast and Nutmeg.
“The Mansion of one of these ‘Squires’ was of plaister, or of red brick, striped with timber, called Callimancho work, large casemented Bow windows, a Porch with seats in it, and over it a Study; the eaves of the house were well inhabited by Martins, and the Court set round with Holly-hocks and clipt Yews. The Hall was provided with Flitches of bacon, and the Mantelpiece with Fowling pieces and Fishing rods of different dimensions, accompanied by the Broad Sword, Partisan, and Dagger, borne by his Ancestors in the Civil Wars; the vacant spaces were occupied by Stags’ horns. In the window lay Baker’s Chronicle, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, Glanvil on Witches, Quincey’s Dispensatory, Bracken’s Farriery, and the Gentleman’s Recreation. In this room at Christmas, round a glowing fire, he entertained his Tenants; here was told and heard exploits in Hunting, and who had been the best Sportsman of his time; and although the glass was in constant circulation, the traditionary tales of the village, respecting Ghosts and Witches, petrified them with fear. The best Parlour, which was never opened but on some particular occasion, was furnished with worked chairs and carpet, by some industrious Female of the Family, and the wainscot was decorated with portraits of his Ancestors, and Pictures of running Horses and Hunting pieces. Among the out-offices of the house, were a warm stable for his Horses, and a good Kennel for his Hounds; and near the gate was the horse-block, for the conveniency of mounting.”
This is a pleasing picture of the old-time Squireen or Yeoman, a class even now not quite extinct. Here and there, in quieter parts of England and Ireland, one may yet come across a belated specimen of the little Squire or wealthier Yeoman, living in some quaint, old-fashioned house in which his forbears have dwelt before him for centuries. More probably than not he is a hare-hunter and takes his pleasure in the field, following with absorbing interest some old-fashioned pack of blue-mottled harriers, whose wonderful voices plainly denote their Southern hound ancestry. It is a thousand pities that these men have so nearly vanished from the countryside. But, as Macaulay notices, even in Charles II.’s time, the wealthy yeoman, possessing three or four hundred acres of his own land, was already vanishing from the soil, and being absorbed by the great territorial aristocracy.
Between the two characters here sketched—one of Charles I.’s, the other of George II. or George III.’s time—comes the type depicted by Addison with such loving and such astonishing fidelity in his portrait of Sir Roger de Coverley. It cannot be doubted that Sir Roger was drawn from the life, his original some country gentleman of Queen Anne’s reign. Addison so admirably describes the hare -hunting of that period that I am tempted to reproduce some part of his letters on the worthy knight: “Sir Roger, being at present too old for Foxhunting, to keep himself in action has disposed of his Beagles and got a Pack of Stop-Hounds. What these want in speed, he endeavours to make amends for by the deepness of their Mouths and the Variety of their Notes, which are suited in such manner to each other, that the whole Cry makes up a compleat Consort. He is so nice in this particular, that a Gentleman having made him a present of a very fine Hound the other day, the Knight returned it by the servant with a great many expressions of civility; but desired him to tell his master, that the Dog he had sent was indeed a most excellent Base, but that at present he only wanted a Counter Tenor. . . . Sir Roger is so keen at this Sport that he has been out almost every day since I came down, and upon the Chaplain’s offering to lend me his easie pad, I was prevail’d on Yesterday Morning to make one of the Company. I was extremely pleased, as we rid along, to observe the general Benevolence of all the Neighbourhood towards my friend. The Farmers’ sons thought themselves happy if they could open a gate for the good old Knight as he passed by; Which he generally requited with a Nod or a Smile, and a kind inquiry after their Fathers or Uncles.
“After we had rid about a mile from home, we came upon a large heath and the sportsmen began to beat. They had done so for some time, when, as I was at a little Distance from the rest of the Company, I saw a Hare pop out from a small Furze-brake, almost under my Horse’s feet. I marked the way she took, which I endeavoured to make the Company sensible of by extending my arm; but to no purpose, till Sir Roger, who knows that none of my extraordinary motions are insignificant, rode up to me and asked if Puss was gone that way? Upon my answering Yes he immediately called in the Dogs, and put them upon the scent. As they were going off, I heard one of the Country Fellows muttering to his Companion, That ’twas a wonder they had not lost all their Sport, for want of the silent Gentleman’s crying STOLE AWAY.
“This, with my Aversion to leaping Hedges, made me withdraw to a rising ground, from whence I could have the pleasure of the whole Chase, without the fatigue of keeping in with the Hounds. The Hare immediately threw them above a Mile behind her; but I was pleased to find that instead of running strait forward, or in Hunter’s language. Flying the Country, as I was afraid she might have done, she wheel’d about, and described a sort of Circle round the Hill whereon I had taken my Station, in such manner as gave me a very distinct View of the Sport. I could see her first pass by, and the Dogs sometime afterwards unravelling the whole Track she had made, and following her through all her Doubles. I was at the same time delighted in observing that Deference which the rest of the Pack paid to each particular Hound, according to the Character he had acquired amongst them: If they were at a Fault, and an old Hound of good reputation opened but once, he was immediately followed by the whole Cry; while a raw Dog, or one who was a noted Liar, might have yelped his heart out without being taken notice of.
“The Hare now, after having squatted two or three times, and been put up again as often, came still nearer to the Place, where she was at first started. The Dogs pursued her and these were followed by the jolly Knight, who rode upon a white Gelding, encompassed by his Tenants and Servants, and chearing his Hounds with all the Gaiety of Five and Twenty. One of the Sportsmen rode up and told me that he was sure the Chace was almost at an end, because the old Dogs, which had hitherto lain behind, now headed the Pack. The Fellow was in the right. Our Hare took a large Field just under us, followed by the full Cry in View. I must confess the brightness of the weather, the Chearfulness of everything around me, the Chiding of the Hounds, which was returned upon us in a double echo from the neighbouring Hills, with the Hallowing of the Sportsmen, and the Sounding of the Horn, lifted my spirits into a most lively Pleasure, which I freely indulged because I was sure it was innocent. If I was under any Concern, it was on the account of the poor Hare, that was now quite spent and almost within the Reach of her Enemies; when the Huntsman, getting forward, threw down his Pole before the Dogs. They were now within eight yards of that Game which they had been pursuing for almost as many Hours; yet on the Signal before mentioned they all made a sudden stand, and tho’ they continued opening as much as before, durst not once attempt to pass beyond the Pole. At the same Time Sir Roger rode forward, and alighting took up the Hare in his Arms; which he soon after delivered to one of his Servants with an Order, if she could be kept alive to let her go in his great Orchard, where, it seems, he had several of these Prisoners of War, who live together in a very comfortable captivity. . . . For my own part,” concludes the Spectator, in this admirable account, “I intend to hunt twice a week during my stay with Sir Roger; and shall prescribe the moderate use of this Exercise to all my Country Friends, as the best kind of physick for mending a bad Constitution and preserving a good one.”
It is extremely unlikely that many Queen Anne Squires, save the renowned Sir Roger de Coverley, preserved their hares at the finish of a long chase in the manner described by Addison. For years, I am bound to confess, I took the description of the jolly Knight’s Stop-Hounds as a pleasing fiction, invented for the amusement of the readers of the Spectator. But research has convinced me long since that Stop-Hounds were really and truly employed by our ancestors. “The Southern Hounds,” says Daniel, “were recommended for woodland and hilly countries, and used by those hunters who went on foot and hunted, as it was termed, under the Pole, by which is meant, that so exact was the discipline by which these Hounds were regulated, that in the hottest scent, if the hunting Pole were thrown before them, they stopped in an instant, and followed the Huntsman’s heels in full cry, till he again permitted their going forward; this much lengthened the Chase, which sometimes lasted five or six hours.” A strange method, truly!
Having presented portraits of hare-hunters from the reign of Charles I. to the middle of the eighteenth century, let me complete my gallery of old-time sportsmen by depicting an Essex squire named Saich, who flourished about the year 1800. “He was,” says a writer in the Sporting Magazine for July 1827, “an old gentleman residing at Layer, in the country between Colchester and the Sea, on the Maldon side, who possessed and cultivated a considerable quantity of land and was much respected. He kept a pack of hounds, was a Nimrod by nature, and had a jovial soul, indulging in the spontaneous impulses of each without niggardly restraint. It was not the fashion in those days to organise your establishment in much refinement. . . . My friend’s harriers, as they were called, because they used to hunt the hares, were of a grotesque character, not definable as a whole by any rules of Beckford or Somervile. The deep-toned, blue-mottled, the dwarf foxhound, the true bred harrier, the diminutive beagle, all joined in the cry and helped to supply the pot. Being somewhat strangers to one another, discord prevailed—having a butcher for one master, a baker for another, a farmer for a third, spreading pretty well through the village. With such heterogeneous qualities, and not in social intercourse, with an impenetrable country to hunt over, whippers-in were indispensable, of which there was a plentiful supply, personated, I may say, by all the attendants, with immense long whips, and deep-sounding lungs not sparingly used.
“The huntsman was the owner, riding an old grizzled horse, rather lengthy both above and below the saddle, in a green coat, with flaps covering the boot-tops, and large yellow buttons, a scarlet waistcoat high in the throat and long in the waist, with a pair of pockets deep enough for a large tobacco box, or even for a leveret in a strait—his breeches ribbed corduroys, short at the knee, and secured from rubbing over by a large pair of silver knee-buckles; boots allied to the Jack
