THE funeral of one of the best-known names from the Lakeland hunting scene drew so many people that they were not all able to fit into the Methodist Chapel at Sedbergh.

Around 350 people turned out to pay their respects to John Nicholson, the retired huntsman with the Lunesdale Foxhounds, who has died aged 81.

His sister-in-law, Vera Hawes, who gave an address, along with Mr Nicholson's friend, John Stott, said that there were so many present that a large number of people had to stand outside.

The cortge, which included eight huntsmen, had been taken right through Sedbergh, and a hunting horn was blown as the coffin was lowered. A little girl had brought along a hound that Mr Nicholson had seen before he died.

Mr Nicholson was born into a Lakeland farming family at Lowgill in 1924, and moved to Grove Farm, Ambleside, which was a sheep farm, when he was five-years-old.

He had a love of hounds and hunting from a very early age and played truant from school to spend time with the nearby Coniston Foxhounds.

He became whipper-in with the Lunesdale Foxhounds when they were based at Orton, and his huntsman was Walter Parkin.

In 1950, when he was 25, he was earning £4 a week.

The Lune-sdale Fox- hounds covered the biggest range of any hunt, and Mr Nicholson could walk 100 to 200 miles a week, and catch 80 foxes in a year. The area was so vast that the work could take him from home for weeks at a time.

Mr Nicholson would get up at 6am to clean out and feed his 50 hounds. He knew every hound by its cry, and if one was making a disturbance in the kennels, he could tell which animal it was. The hunt later moved kennels to Cautley.

He was made huntsman in 1962 and married Rita Lowthian in 1968. The couple had a daughter, Helen, and they had retired to Sedbergh.

Mrs Hawes said that her brother-in-law was very dry and humorous.

"He was very, very fond of his hounds and got prizes all over the place for the best hounds and the best dressed huntsman he was always turned out immaculately by my sister.

"He judged at shows all over the place and he would have been at Lowther, no doubt, this week judging terriers and hounds.

"He was a very, very popular man."

Although retired since 1990, he was still active.

Mrs Hawes said that Mr Nicholson had not believed in breaking the law over the hunting ban, but he had spoken about hunting being the most humane way to deal with foxes.

As well as his wife and daughter, he is also survived by sisters Dora and Hilda, and a brother, Christopher, Mrs Hawes, and her husband, Stephen.