The Harrier is an unsatisfactory breed about which to write, for it has no real title to be called a "breed"; and yet we read of the Harrier ages before many now well established were even thought of. Some authors have been of opinion that the word "harrier" was the Norman equivalent to our word "hound," and that this accounts for the name being found in the works of very early writers. However this may be, as we shall see later, Caius gives a description of the Harrier, but it does not bear much resemblance to the modern hound.

The fact is that the Harrier of one part of the country always seems to have differed considerably from the Harrier of another part; and at the present time, if any uniformity can be said to exist, it is in favour of the Harrier being simply a Foxhound bred from Foxhounds. There is a "Harrier Stud Book," kept by the "Associated Masters of Harriers and Beagles"; but as purebred Foxhounds find ready admittance, its value as a preservative of Harrier blood is not very clear. Quite recently an American author bringing out a standard work upon the dog made application to the Master of an English pack well and favourably known in the field and at Peterborough (where only Stud-Book hounds can be exhibited) for an authentic account and photograph of his Harriers. He has published the following reply: "I do not send you a photograph of my Harriers, for mine are all dwarf Foxhounds entered in the Harrier Stud Book. They are, however, the type that win at Peterborough Hound Show, and are my idea of Harriers." This is honest and straightforward, but does not help us in considering the Harrier as a breed.

Probably most Masters study their country and the wishes of their best supporters, forming their packs accordingly. The majority like a fast twenty-five minutes and a kill, consequently medium-sized Foxhounds are in general use; but a few consider that the very essence of hare-hunting consists in giving the quarry time to display all her consummate skill in throwing hounds off her line - they like to see hare and hound fairly matched, they love to watch the pack "hunting," and are not anxious to total up at the end of the season an immense number of kills. In such packs the type of the old Southern Hound is generally conspicuous; sometimes slightly enlarged Beagles of 17in. to 18in. are clearly in evidence.

The Bexhill Harriers are a black-and-tan pack very striking in appearance. Some show pronounced old Southern Hound characteristics, but not all. They are as large and powerful as Foxhounds.

Probably the nearest approach to a distinct Harrier "breed" has been attained by some of the old-established Lancashire packs, a county in which hare-hunting has always been extremely popular. The Holcombe can, it is said, show hounds with a Harrier pedigree of over one hundred years; but of course this at once brings us back to the question of what is a "Harrier" pedigree. In size these Lancashire hounds (Fig. 49) usually equal Foxhounds (22m. to 23m.). A favourite colour is blue-mottle with some tan markings. This is never seen in the Foxhound, but is common enough in the Beagle, one of the most ancient breeds of our country. Although they are too big to suit some Hunts, or to be generally accepted as the ideal Harrier, they would doubtless afford the best and safest foundation on which a Master could build who had sufficient enthusiasm and skill to set before himself the task of establishing a Harrier pack free from the pottering of the old Southern Hound, and the dash, drive, and pace of the Foxhound. A few determined breeders, by forming themselves into a Club and acting together, could very soon revive a type of hare-hunting hound with characteristics of its own, suitable for most districts in which hares are hunted; and would help to save the Harrier from becoming only another name for "draft Foxhound."

Caius describes the Harrier as "that kind of dog which Nature hath endued with the virtue of smelling, whose property it is to use a justness, a readiness, and a courageousness in hunting"; and, further: "We may know these kind of dogs by their long, large, and bagging lippes, by their hanging ears, reaching down both sides of their chappes, and by the indifferent and measurable proportion of their making; this sort of dog we call Leverarius, Harriers."

Such a description, meagre as it is, applies more to the old Southern Hound than to the Harrier of to-day, for it is long since hare-hunting was revolutionised, and the slow, plodding hound that would dwell on the scent - giving vent to the keenness of his own enjoyment of the chase, and delighting the sportsman with melodious tongue whilst following puss in her every wile and double - has had to make way for the modern hound, possessing more dash and speed, thus forcing the hare to depend on her swiftness, rather than on cunning devices, for evading her pursuers.

Harriers, like other classes of hounds, have been bred and varied to suit the requirements of the country they are hunted in, and the taste, and even whims, of the owner. "Stonehenge," in his original work on the dog, says: "The true Harrier is a dwarf Southern Hound, with a very slight infusion of the Greyhound in him." But to get the increased speed required, it would seem to be quite unnecessary to go to the Greyhound. Beckford, a sportsman, and brilliant writer on sport, whose opinions were, and still are, authoritative as far as applicable to the altered circumstances of our day, writing at the end of last century, says: "The hounds I think most likely to show you sport are between the large, slow-hunting Harrier and the little Fox-Beagle. . . . The first, it is true, have most excellent noses, and I make no doubt will kill their game at last if the day be long enough; but 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 deep and wet, it is not impossible that some of them may be drowned. My hounds," he goes on to say, "were a cross of both these kinds, in which it was my endeavour to get as much bone and strength in as small a compass as possible. I tried many years, and an infinity of hounds, before I could get what I wanted, and at last had the pleasure to see them very handsome, small, yet very bony; they ran remarkably well together, went fast enough, had all the alacrity that could be desired, and would hunt the coldest scent."

Fig. 49. - Bever, a Holcombe Harrier.