REMINISCENCES
There are very few Masters in the country who hunt fox in winter and
otter in summer with the same hounds, and fewer still we imagine who have
killed an otter and a fox on the same day. The latter feat was performed
by the Master of the South Tetcott, whose hounds found and killed an
otter on the River Othery, after which they unkennelled a fox cub, and
after rattling him about a bit, eventually brought him to hand.
One of the few packs hunting both fox and otter is the Ynsfor, a
private pack owned by Major Evan Jones. His country lies in Carnarvon
and Merioneth, Snowdon and the adjoining mountains lying within its
borders. The Master is his own huntsman, and hounds are followed on foot,
owing to the precipitous nature of the country. The pack is composed
of the old Welsh breed, some rough and some smooth, with many of the
old black-and-tan colour amongst them. These hounds have been in Major
Jones's family since 1765.
Probably few people have been out with both foxhounds and otterhounds on
the same day, but we can plead guilty to having accomplished this feat.
Before the L.D.O.H. were disbanded, hounds met very early one morning,
but failed to get an otter afloat, and when they returned to kennels we
went off and joined the Coniston Foxhounds, and eventually saw Reynard
accounted for.
A great many people appear to have a rooted idea that an otter is a
slow-moving, clumsy creature, which never leaves the vicinity of water.
Such an assumption is, to say the least of it, inaccurate, as anyone can
easily testify, particularly those who have done much otter-hunting on
the rocky rivers of the north. In a previous chapter we have mentioned
a hunt during which the otter crossed a watershed, and this brings to
mind a seven and a half hours' hunt by the K. and D.O.H. on the River
Lune in the season of 1921. The otter was lying rough in a hanging wood
overlooking the river, and was found by a little fell-foxhound named
Cragsman, belonging to the Ullswater pack. After some up and down work
on the river, our otter stole away on land, and crossed some fields to a
small stream which runs between steep banks. There was a screaming scent,
and hounds fairly flew in pursuit. The otter ran the small stream nearly
to the top of the ghyll, then turned and came back. In a rock-bound pool
he lay low, but hounds were soon at him again. The pool lay between
smooth and slippery walls of rock, and at first the otter barely showed
his nose. Suddenly, however, he made a terrific spring--his hind legs no
doubt getting purchase on a ledge below the surface of the water--and all
but got clear of the pool. He hung for a brief instant on the rock wall,
making the picture of a lifetime for anyone lucky enough to have been
there with a camera, then he turned and fell with a splash into the pool.
It was a miracle how he got clear, but get away he did to run the fields
again, and take refuge in a rabbit burrow on the bank of the main river.
Hounds were taken away, and after a bit of work the terriers bolted him.
He took down stream, and after the pack was laid on, a couple of hounds
collared him on the shallows. He appeared to fling these hounds off as if
they were straws, then he shot into a pool, raising a splash and a wake
like a hydroplane as he crossed it.
Reaching the farther bank, he at once took to the hanging wood, and went
straight up it. He gained a short start by this manoeuvre, then the pack
was roaring in his wake. Running the wood like a fox, it looked at first
as if he was going right out at the top, but he turned and came down
again, crossed the river and took refuge in a strong root holt. Some
time was spent digging before he could be ejected, and when he was at
last obliged to bolt, he again went straight across the river and took
to the wood. Hounds drove him round it, and he once more took the water.
Here he entered a long but not very deep pool, and hounds swam him down
it, then he turned and hounds checked. There was little or no cover on
the banks, but he got out without being seen, the first warning we had
of his departure being given by a young, rough hound which hit off his
line in the wood. This time he ran straight out to the top of the covert,
turned left-handed and crossed the open fields for more than a mile, just
beating hounds to a drain, the grating of which had been moved, where he
got in and was eventually left.
We viewed this otter several times at close quarters, and estimated his
weight at nearer 30 lb. than 25 lb.
He showed extraordinary running powers and activity for so large an
otter, and it was hard luck on hounds that he beat them.
There was a screaming scent on land, but when he took the water for the
last time, hounds had some difficulty in owning the wash. That otter
would most certainly have convinced anyone who was sceptical of _Lutra's_
activity and running powers.
We have already mentioned the fondness that otters have--particularly
in Canada--for sliding. When engaged in this amusement, they tuck their
forelegs in, and toboggan down the bank on their stomachs. This season
(1921), whilst the Coniston Foxhounds were hunting on the fells, a
couple and a half of hounds ran a fox in the direction of an earth on
which some of the field were standing. About the same time, an otter
suddenly ran out from some rocks near the main earth, and after going
some distance, tucked in its head and forelegs, and actually _rolled_
some yards downhill. We were on the opposite side of the valley at the
time, but a very keen and experienced fox and otter hunter who was there,
and witnessed the incident, said that he had never seen anything like it
before in his life.
A name to conjure with in the annals of Lakeland otter-hunting is that
of the late Bobby Troughton. He was born on Fellside, Kendal, in 1836. In
the early eighties he purchased three hounds, "Raleigh," "Ragman," and
"Londesborough," and with these three hounds and a couple of terriers he
began to hunt the local rivers. Having thus formed the nucleus of a pack,
he gradually added to it and improved it, until the late Mr Courtenay
Tracy, M.O.H., said there was not another pack like it in England.
Bobby's heaviest otter was a big dog weighing 32 lb., and was killed in
Rydal Lake. One of his most famous hunts took place in Lever's Water on
the Coniston fells. Hounds met at 5 a.m. at the foot of Yewdale Beck, and
striking a hot drag at once, went out towards the hills. Near the edge of
the tarn they put their otter down, and he at once took to the water. For
nine hours he kept hounds going, and it was not until some of the field
volunteered to go to Coniston for a boat--no small undertaking--that
Bobby was able to get afloat himself, and give his hounds a helping hand.
At long last the otter attempted to land, and hounds collared him, thus
earning their reward.
[Illustration: K. & D.O.H. Moving Off to Draw.
(_Copyright by R. F. Lees, Blackpool_).
]
[Illustration: Going to the Meet by Ferry on Lake Windermere.
(_Photo by R. Clapham_). _To face p. 139._
]
At one time in the north, packs of rough hounds were kept for hunting
otter, marten, and foumart. One of the last of these packs to hunt in the
Lake District belonged to the late Mr Fleming Green, of Grasmere. Anthony
Chapman, who was his huntsman, and later hunted the Windermere Harriers
for many seasons, is still hale and hearty, and delights in a "crack"
about old times.
Another well-known Master in the north was the late Mr James Lomax, of
Clayton Hall, Great Harwood, Lancashire.
His "Otter-hunting Diary" contains an account of the sport he enjoyed
from 1829 to 1871, and is most interesting reading. Like Bobby
Troughton in later years, he bred a very perfect pack of hounds of
the rough-coated type. In 1871 rabies unfortunately broke out in his
kennels, necessitating the destruction of all but three of the hounds.
Being himself advanced in years, he made no attempt to start a new pack,
despite the many offers of hounds he received, and one cannot blame
him. By the time he had got together another pack as good as the one he
had lost, he would as he said himself have been too old to follow and
enjoy the sport. Mr Lomax always met very early in the morning, often as
soon as 3 a.m. He showed wonderful sport on Ribble, Lune, and many other
rivers, and old men who can remember hunting with him, speak in glowing
terms of the great hunts they enjoyed with his pack. In one respect
Mr Lomax differed from present-day Masters, i.e., in the practice of
"sacking" otters and removing them to more huntable waters. There are in
the diary, several instances recorded of such otters having died, so that
the practice was not a profitable one.
The most famous otter-hunter Scotland has ever seen was the late Mr
Waldron Hill, of Murrayfield House, near Edinburgh.
When quite a young man he contracted consumption, and was told by his
doctors that he had not long to live. Nothing daunted, however, Mr Hill
took to otter-hunting, and the sport agreed with him so well, that he
hunted practically every river in Scotland, and lived to be far advanced
in years.
When the West Lothian Foxhounds were in existence, Mr Hill used to run
with them, and saw as much sport as most of the mounted brigade.
In "Field and Fern," _The Druid_ wrote regarding Mr Hill: "Some years ago
he had a pack of otterhounds in Monmouthshire, of the Welsh breed, smooth
and white with yellow ears; for the last five years he has had black and
tans, a cross between the bloodhound and rough Lancashire hound, which is
used in that country for otter and foumart. Their nose is nearly equal
to the Lancashire hound, who are unrivalled in this respect and never
disposed to be tonguey. The bloodhound cross also makes them more savage
in their worry, but they are often very unpleasant to manage in kennel.
Mr Hill has found the foxhound fail in working up to his otter in a cold
drag, but excellent on the line when the game is fairly started. With
him the southern hound has only failed from lack of constitution, which
is injured by too much swimming."
Mr Hill used terriers of Welsh breed, which he got from the kennels of Mr
Ramsay Williams, after the latter's death. These terriers weighed about
15 lb., and were bred as flat-sided as possible to enable them to squeeze
into narrow places. They were fairly long on the leg, and were used for
bolting fox, otter, marten, and foumart. Mr Hill's principal river was
the Tyne, flowing through Haddingtonshire. Speaking of the South Esk,
_The Druid_ says: "Last August it was the scene of a very remarkable run,
as the otter only touched the water twice for a few minutes throughout a
run of eight or nine miles, and was eventually pulled down in the heart
of one of the East Lothian fox-whins." Regarding a long drag with Mr
Hill's hounds, _The Druid_ says: "In '62 the hounds hit upon one at the
Clutby Dam reservoir on the north side of the Pentlands, and hunted him
through the sheep-drains right over the Pentlands, down to the reservoir
at St Catherine's. He had gone through it on the north side, and from
there down the Glencorn burn, nearly to the North Esk. Leaving this for
another burn across the country, he headed back to the reservoir at St
Catherine's, where, on account of the water being too high, he could not
be moved. This otter must have travelled nearly twenty miles during the
night, and it was well for Mr Hill that his terriers were long-legged;
and that he himself is always in condition summer or winter, or he would
have seen nothing of the fun on that hot and very wet September morning."
We wonder how far the members of a modern otter-hunting field would get,
if asked to follow hounds on a hot drag for twenty miles? Not far we'll
warrant, for most of them would swear that hounds were on a fox.
People who incautiously "tail" an otter are very apt to get bitten, and
regarding this _The Druid_ says: "In all these forays Mr Hill has never
got heavily bitten himself; but many years ago, when he was hunting on
the Kenvy near Abergavenny, the otter came out of the water just before
it was killed, made straight at the whip, who was a few yards off his
master, shook him savagely by the trousers, and then passed on."
We have heard people say that an otter makes no splash when diving or
otherwise entering the water. Certainly at times he does not make much
of a disturbance, for his sinuous body is built for swimming, but when
playing in the water, or when hunted, he splashes quite a lot. We were on
one occasion watching the mouth of a drain on the river Lune, in which
the terriers were baiting an otter. In front of this drain was a row of
willow trees. Standing quietly a yard or so to one side of the drain
entrance we at last saw the otter show himself. He stood at the drain
mouth sniffing the air, the muscles working his thick "whiskers," giving
his face a very puffed out appearance. Hearing or seeing some of the
field on the opposite bank of the river he turned round and went back up
the drain. A fairly long interval elapsed, and we were just bending down
to listen at the drain mouth, when, without the slightest warning the
otter shot out, and leapt straight through the willow tree, to land in
the water with a splash like a sack of oats. From where he took off, to
the point where he hit the river, constituted a remarkable jump, and he
must have been coming pretty fast when he shot out of the drain.
On another occasion at the same drain, which is a favourite resort of
otters, the terriers were at work, and an opening had been made into the
drain at some distance from the river. We were watching the drain mouth,
and after a bit the otter showed himself, but went back. The bank where
we stood was high, and there was a certain amount of rubbish in the
way of dead branches, etc., partially covering the drain mouth. Being
below the bank we could not see what was happening in the field, and we
were greatly astonished when a big otter suddenly rushed over the edge
of the bank, nearly on top of us, scrambled through the branches, and
disappeared up the drain. The terriers had bolted him in the field, and
we, of course, were unaware of what was happening. This otter finally
emerged at the drain mouth, but unlike his predecessor, took the water
quietly below the willow trees.
In Walton's description of a morning's sport with Mr Sadler's
"Otter-dogs," Sweetlips--one of the hounds--brings the carcass of the
otter to "Venator." We have on several occasions seen a hound seize and
carry a dead-beat otter ashore. This is easily done in the case of a 12
lb. or 14 lb. otter, but it is a different matter for a hound to handle
a big, fighting dog otter. When a hunted otter is floating on top of the
water, he often makes a considerable splash if he dives in a hurry.
Although perhaps not so good a climber as some other members of the
weasel family, the otter is no slouch at negotiating steep, rocky ghylls,
and can scramble about in a wonderful manner. It seems rather hard to
account for the fact that in some seasons hounds kill a majority of dog
otters, while in other seasons the total is chiefly made up of bitches.
Where you find a bitch otter, there is often a dog within a mile or
so, either up or down stream; and no doubt the two of them keep that
particular stretch of water free from other lutrine intruders.
Scent and its vagaries will no doubt always be a mysterious problem.
How often have we seen hounds able to hunt quite well amongst the
undergrowth, yet when they reached an open expanse of sand where the seal
of an otter was plainly visible, they have crossed it without a single
hound speaking. An instance of this comes to mind during the season
of 1921, when hounds ran well across country, whereas on a sand-bank,
literally padded flat with otter tracks, never a hound opened.
Although hounds may sometimes travel a long way up-stream without
touching a drag, that does not always signify that you will not find. An
instance of this comes to mind when we were hunting a small hill-stream.
Hounds had covered some miles of water without a sign of a drag, and the
field was becoming rather discouraged, when suddenly the pack opened
in no uncertain manner, and began tearing at a holt on the bank. While
hounds were thus occupied, the otter bolted and went downstream, and
after a short hunt was accounted for. Until reaching the spot where
hounds marked, there was little or no lying ground, and seeing that there
was also no up-stream drag it pointed to the fact that our otter had
travelled over a neighbouring watershed, and had entered the holt on his
journey downstream. It is always well to remember that an otter may be
found anywhere, and because there happens to be no drag up-stream that
does not mean to say that you may not find when you reach the head waters.
Regarding the agility and jumping powers of otters we remember hounds
finding an otter lying rough, which, after a certain amount of dusting
up and down stream, jumped a wall into a road, passed under a motor
car standing there, and went over another wall into the field beyond.
Leaving the field it scaled a third wall before returning to the water.
Eventually it took to some extensive coverts, and after running a ring
through them, it was bowled over by hounds in the open as it was making
its way back to the river. That an otter knows every inch of ground over
which he has once travelled is made quite apparent to those who do much
otter-hunting.
We have, in a previous chapter, told of an otter which travelled ten
miles overland from one stream to another, going straight to the various
smoots through the walls which barred its passage. In an emergency, too,
an otter makes up his mind pretty quickly. On one occasion the terriers
got to their otter in a drain, and after opening the latter, the otter
backed out. The drain lay parallel to a hedge, and like a flash the otter
darted through this, ran down behind it, and was into another underground
retreat before anyone had time to realise his game.
As a rule, if two otters are put down together, the one which is not
being hunted will promptly make itself scarce. We remember on one
occasion, however, when hounds were hunting a bitch otter, the dog hung
about in plain sight under a bridge, and remained there until the bitch
was accounted for, after which he himself suffered the same fate.
Otter-hunting is the least artificial of our British field sports. The
otter is a wild animal, living the same free life that he has done for
generations, and we have yet to learn a good deal concerning him. Being
a great wanderer, he is here to-day and gone to-morrow, and his hunting
provides more "glorious uncertainty" than the chase of any other beast.
Before you can hunt him you must find him, but whereas with deer, fox,
and hare, the finding is often the easiest part of the business, in the
case of the otter it is the most difficult. In a previous chapter we have
made brief mention of otter-hunting dress. In these days blue is the
popular colour for Hunt livery, the material most favoured being woollen
serge. We wonder how modern otter-hunters would like to wear the dress
mentioned by Blaine, i.e., a green dress turned up with red, fur cap with
gold band, and waterproof hip-boots decorated with red or gold tassels.
It was Somervile in _The Chase_ who coined the phrase "sly goose-footed
prowler," and gave to the world one of the best accounts of an otter-hunt
ever penned. Otter-hunting seems to have been little catered for in the
matter of songs pertaining to the sport. No doubt there are many purely
local ditties concerning the doings of various packs, but few songs
of real worth have made their appearance. In "The Poetry of Sport" by
Hedley Peek, we find one or two, and in the "Otter-hunting Diary" of Mr
James Lomax there are a couple of Lancashire otter-hunting songs. One of
these songs is in dialect, and we take the liberty of quoting a verse or
two for to anyone who understands broad Lancashire they convey a lively
description of the sport. The song is entitled "The Hunt in the Hodder."
In the first verse the narrator goes to the meet:
"Old Squire Lomax's dags I'd oft heerd um tell,
I bethought me one morning I'd see um mysell,
So I donn'd me, and reet off for Mytton dud trig,
Un I landed me just as they loosed under th' Brig.
_Chorus_
Cobbler wur theer, Carver wur theer,
Random and Rover, oud Pilot and aw."
After a good drag, hounds mark their otter in his holt, and Crab the
terrier is sent in.
"Hark! Crab's agate feighting him, hard as he con,
Be sharp un seize howd of a dog, every mon.
We had nobbut just cleeked um, un roven um back,
When th' grey-headed maister croap eawt in a crack."
_Chorus_
Hounds swim their otter for some time until at last he takes refuge in a
holt.
"We swum him to Winckley, un theer he dud hoyle,
But a pick un a spade soon his harbour dud spoil;
Then he fought into Ribble, ay, reet thro' the pack,
Thro' foar on um once had him dean of his back."
_Chorus_
Hounds eventually account for their otter, and the song finishes with:
"This otter whoas weight wor just twenty-four peands,
Two hears, forty minits, wor hunted by th' heands;
Heer's luck to all th' pack, when they meeten next year,
May th' Captain, un me, un aw us be theer."
_Chorus_
A rather amusing incident occurred some years ago when we were
whipping-in to the now disbanded Lake District Otterhounds. Whilst
waiting at Lakeside for the boat that runs up Lake Windermere, a
char-a-banc load of trippers arrived, to whom the sight of a pack of
otterhounds was evidently a novelty. Before we knew what was happening,
the crowd of sightseers had formed a ring round hounds, each member
of the party producing a song book. There then rose on the air the
well-known refrain "John Peel." The old huntsman listened whilst they
sang the first verse, then suddenly exclaimed "Give it more weft! give
it more weft!" Isaac evidently thought that their efforts compared badly
with the way in which the old song is sung by fox-hunters in Cumberland
or Westmorland.
In addition to being the least artificial of our British field sports,
otter-hunting affords unrivalled opportunities for those who love to
watch the work of hounds. It is more popular now than it ever was, yet
there is still ample room for many more packs before our rivers and
lakes are thoroughly hunted as they should be. The more otters you kill
the more you will have, for riparian owners and tenants are for the most
part quite willing to afford protection to _Lutra_, when they know that
a keen huntsman and a killing pack of hounds are hunting their waters
regularly throughout the season.
In conclusion we will finish with the old south-country toast "Death to
dog otters! Long life to the little bitches!"
[Illustration]
FINIS
INDEX
Abnormal colour, 32
Activity of otter, 55, 137
Adult otter, eyes of, 46
African otter, 23
Age of otters, 32
Air, in holts, 50
"Argyll, a Fauna of," 32
Back teeth of otter, 22
Bethel, William, 43
Bitch otter, breeding of, 31
Biss hunters, 115
Black-and-tan Welsh hounds, 122
Bloodhound, 112
Blaine, 150
Bobby Troughton, 138
British otter, 22
"British Rural Sports, Manual of," 76
Coke, 37, 38
Colour of otter, 26
Charles St John, 56
Claw-marks of otter, 40
Clothing for otter-hunting, 109
Claws, otter, 71
_Chase, The_, 151
Colour of terriers, 127
Chesapeake Bay dog, 113
Cross-bred hounds, 115
Cubs, 31, 32, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 60
Dabchicks, 62
Dalnaspidal, 63
Digging by otter, 70
Dixon, H. H., 77
Digging, 98
Drains, 106, 107
_Druid, The_, 141, 142, 143
Dress, otter-hunting, 150
Drag, 78, 79, 80
Ducklings, 64
Eels, 60
Early meets, 77-80
Essex O.H., 31
Equipment, otter-hunting, 110
Evicting otter, 96
Exercising hounds, 129
Excrement, 37
Feet, otter's, 25
"Field and Fern," 77
Finding otters, 87, 88
Food for hounds, 129
Footprints, 38-40
Fur, otter's, 25, 26
Gaits of otter, 41
Harrier, Lancashire, 113
Hazel pole, 110
Head, otter's, 24, 26
Hebrides, otters in, 55
Hide, otter's, 33
Highlands, otters in, 55
Highway, hounds on, 108
Hill, Mr Waldron, 140
Holts, 49, 50
Hound, lime, 75
Horn, 110
Indian otter, 23
Interdigital webs, 28
James Lomax, 77, 123
John, King, 73
Jones, Major Evan, 132, 133
John, Charles St, 56
Jura, 32
King John, 73
Kenets, 113
Kennels, 130
Lash, whip, 110
Liam, 75
Lime hound, 75
Lomax, James, 77, 123
"Master of Game," 73, 75, 113, 114
Marten, 65, 66
Meeting early, 77-80
Milbourne, 36
Notes on the horn, 111
Otter, natural history of, 21-41
----, head of, 24, 26
----, hide of, 33
----, Indian, 23
----, digging, 70
----, excrement of, 37
----, feet of, 25
----, fur of, 25, 26
----, footprints of, 38-40
----, African, 23
----, age of, 32
----, activity of, 55, 137
----, British, 22
----, back teeth of, 29
----, colour of, 26
----, cubs, 31, 32, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 60
----, coke, 37, 38
----, claw-marks of, 40
----, claws, 71
----, holts, 49, 50
----, abnormal colour of, 32
----, weights and measurements of, 30, 31
Peek, Hedley, 151
Pine-marten, 65, 66
"Poetry of Sport," 151
Record weights, 30
Rose, Mr, 31
Salmon and otter, 57, 58
Seal, 38
Scent, 104, 105
Signal, on whistle, 100
Size of otters, 30, 31
Songs, otter-hunting, 151
Spears, otter, 74
Spraints, 37
Spur, 38
Tail, otter's, 25
Tame cubs, 47
Tallying, 99, 100
Teeth, otter's, 29
Track, otter's, 38
Troughton, Bobby, 138
Terriers, 125-128
Uniforms, hunt, 109
Weights of otters, 30, 31
Welsh hounds, 122
Ynsfor O.H., 132
Zoological Gardens, 47, 54, 72
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT
THE NORTHUMBERLAND PRESS LIMITED, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE
* * * * *
Transcriber Note
Illustrations moved so as to not split paragraphs. On page 114, braches
was changed to raches. Hyphenation and "Mr" usage were standardized.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of the Otter, by Richard Clapham