Admirable performers

The Melbreak, Ennerdale, Cumbria

THE Lakeland foot packs have their own unique history, set up as fox control organisations to help farmers protect their sheep. The high fells are far too steep and precipitous for horses and the “in bye” fields in the valley bottoms are too wet and precious. Walking after the hounds is the only option.

This lack of equine interest in fellhunting means followers focus on the hounds, which are counted individually, not in couples as in lowland hunts. There are six packs which represent the Central Committee of Fell Packs, their governing body. The Melbreak has a country that is only small but the most northern and perhaps the most rugged of them all.

The pack is named after Melbreak Fell, which stands on the western shore of Crummock Water and at the foot of which they were kennelled until 1928.

In 1906, when Sir Humphrey De Trafford wrote about this hunt in The