46 THE HUNTING FIELD 



up for anything archbishops, if they saw an opening 

 and we think they would almost as soon fulfil the 

 duties of one as the other. It is not every wide- 

 throated fellow with "nought to do, and who likes 

 hontin vastly," as they say in Yorkshire, that will 

 make a Huntsman not a Huntsman to foxhounds, 

 though we are not sure but a good bow-backed 

 pedestrian, with his head well down to the ground 

 for "pricking," would not make as good a harrier 

 Huntsman as the best. The two offices are as 

 different as horse-riding and donkey-riding. They 

 both " go," certainly, but the " stop " of the business 

 is the thing. And yet we have seen fellows who, 

 because they have been able to circumvent a hare, 

 have thought themselves qualified for foxhounds. 

 The simile of the horse and the ass may be 

 carried still further. Turn a horse loose and you 

 don't know where he will go ; but give a donkey his 

 head, and see if he won't stop. It is just the same 

 with a fox and a hare. You never know where a 

 fox is bound, but a hare is almost invariably within 

 the circle of the " magic ring." The fox is travel- 

 ling, the hare perhaps squatting under your horse's 

 feet. So far from having hunted harriers being a 

 qualification for hunting foxhounds, we should say 

 it was a downright objection. You have to unteach 

 the harrier man all he knows, before you begin to 

 teach. Better have a fresh horn and begin a new 

 spoon. We would rather have a fellow from the 

 roughest pack going, whose constant pursuit had 

 been " fox," than one of these psalm-singing gentry. 

 Not that we decry harehunting as a sport; 

 legitimately followed it is capital amusement, but we 

 should never take a Huntsman for foxhounds from 

 a pack of harriers. Instead of thinking which way 

 the fox had gone, he would be always thinking which 

 way he had come. 



We once heard of a harrier genius who, on the 



