You're right Greg: I was over-egging the pudding in the interests of getting over the point that the fell packs are not your 'gentrified' Southern type of hunt!

Peel's hunting territory was in fact much wider than that of the current six fell packs, and although the Blencathra Foxhounds traditionally declare their hounds to be the descendents of Peel's hounds and they are 'the John Peel pack' - and they hunt on foot - they don't cover anywhere near the same ground and go the distances that Peel would have done. His territory extended to that included in today's mounted packs - the Cumberland and the Cumberland Farmers hunts.

John Peel and his cronies would have been on foot when they needed to, on the higher fells, and on horses (Peel's was called Dunny) to cover the ground in the pasture lands below the fells and heading out over the Solway Plain. The horses would have been sturdy, a little bigger than fell ponies - and faster - but not as big as those used by mounted packs today.