A detailed and well researched glimpse of the characters, the customs, the social life, the hunts and hound trails that took place before the valley became a reservoir in the 1930s. The annual Mardale Shepherds' Meet is probably the best known of all the 'meets' of the Lakeland Fell Packs, yet there does not appear to have been a book written about it before. "Older than the memory of man", it carries on, albeit at a different venue, to this day. This book sets out to put the hunt and its impact on the small valley and the occupants into some kind of perspective.