CHARLES WILSON, ESQ., EX-MASTER AND HUNTSMAN OF THE OXENHOLME STAGHOUNDS.
Sometimes the people in the bottom see a great deal more than those on top, and, of course, from below one gets a panoramic view of a hunt, with the entire fell side as the scene of operations. A car, a motor cycle, or even the humble “push-bike” are extremely useful at times during the course of a run with the fell hounds. Occasionally, as, for instance, in the Thirlmere valley, hounds run for a considerable distance parallel with the main road. At such times a car or a cycle enables you to slip along in touch with hounds, whereas without it you would be left toiling in the rear. After some little experience of sport in this wild country, one soon learns how best to get about, and when to trust to “Shanks’s pony,” and where to leave a cycle in case it may be needed in a hurry.
A fair number of ladies attend the meets of the fell packs during the course of a season, and wonderfully well, indeed, do some of them get about.
When speaking of the Lake District, one naturally thinks of Cumberland and Westmorland; but Lancashire contains some of the higher fells, such as Wetherlam and Coniston Old Man. The real boundary of the district is the range of fells south-east of Windermere, and from there a line drawn round Coniston, Wastwater, Ennerdale, Crummock and Bassenthwaite Lakes; continuing over the summits of Skiddaw and Saddleback, southward over Helvellyn, then swinging left to enclose Ullswater and Haweswater, and so back to Windermere. The valleys of Kentmere, Long Sleddale and Swindale are just outside the cordon as drawn above, and so is the Lower Duddon valley on the south-west, but they and all the country included in the roughly-drawn circle, contain scenery typical of Lakeland.
The rainfall in the Lake District appears large on paper, from about 50 inches in the outlying parts to 150 in the more central portions. This, however, does not mean that there is a more or less constant drizzle. When it rains amongst the fells, it rains; a heavy downpour, then clear weather to follow. In summer, as in the hot weather of 1919, there is often a drought.
Speaking of rain reminds me of the yarn concerning the coach-driver, who, when asked by a passenger if they had much rain in the district, replied, “Why, neay; it donks an’ dozzles and does, an’ ’appen comes a bit o’ a snifter, but nivver what you’d ca’ a gey gert pell!”
When out with hounds the visitor will come across many of the small Herdwick sheep scattered about the fells. Before he leaves the district he will no doubt have come to appreciate them as mutton, than which there is none better in the country.
It was Jack Sheldon, another well-known coach-driver, who used to describe the scenery to his passengers, when tooling his team between Windermere and Keswick. His conversation was something like this: “We are now crossing Matterdale Moor, where the farmers have a right of grazing so many sheep by paying a shilling a year to the lord of the manor. There’s fine grass here and on Helvellyn for the hogs!” A retired butcher being on the coach one day remarked, “But I don’t see any hogs!” “Well,” said Jack, “not pigs, but the small sheep you see moving about; they are a special breed, and very good eating. They are called ‘hogs’ for the first year, and when they have been shorn they are called ‘twinters,’ and after losing their second fleece are known as ‘thrunters,’ and that’s pretty near to ‘grunters,’ but when they’re killed the butcher calls them ‘Helvellyn mutton.’”
The Lake District proper is free of limestone, with the exception of a narrow strip of what is known as Coniston limestone. As far as hunting is concerned, this is no loss, for scenting conditions on bare limestone rock are generally bad, unless the atmosphere is very damp. On the north, Penrith is the boundary of the limestone, and in the south, Whitbarrow and Cartmel.