THE HARRIER 187 



men who join their forces for the mutual enjoyment of the pleasures 

 of the chase. 



Although so much weaker, numerically, than the Foxhounds, the 

 above citations respecting Harriers show the aggregate to be very 

 considerable ; and when the vast amount of incidental expenditure 

 connected with them is reckoned, the most exacting of political 

 economists may be reasonably expected to pause and think before 

 proceeding further in rendering the hare as extinct as the wolf in 

 our country. 



Perhaps it would not be out of place here to say a word or two 

 on the subject of hare-hunting. The antiquity of this pastime 

 cannot be called into question ; and we have an undoubted allusion 

 to it by Cervantes, in his " Don Quixote," wherein he says : " Mercy 

 on me, what pleasure can you find, any of ye all, in killing a poor 

 beast that never meant any harm ? " 



The question of Sancho Panza has, by all writers, down to a very 

 recent period, received the stereotyped answer, that it is a noble 

 recreation, most suitable for kings, princes, and the nobility, and 

 also a healthy recreation for knights and gentlemen ; and it was 

 usually gently insinuated that the poor beast, whatever might be 

 its name and nature, ought to be rather pleased than otherwise to 

 be hunted to death by such very exalted beings and their hounds. 

 Without inquiring too curiously into the ethics of hunting, we may 

 venture on the truism that, as hunting, in one form or another, has 

 existed since the dawn of our history, we may assume the predatory 

 habit to be instinctive and inherited ; even in these democratic 

 days, when the pleasures of the chase are less restricted to the 

 highly bred, there is no diminution in the ardour with which it is 

 pursued. One thing we may congratulate ourselves upon is that, 

 with a few exceptions, sport is carried out with less of cruelty, and 

 more in a spirit of fair-play to the game. No one, nowadays, 

 would advocate breaking the lower jaw of a badger in order that 

 a young Terrier might, with safety to itself, learn to draw it. In 

 like manner, the hunting of the hare is carried out on fairer terms 

 than of yore, and, from the hare's point of view, must be very 

 preferable to the prolonged agony of the cruel trap, or the lingering 

 death from mortification or starvation consequent upon the sports- 

 man's shot failing to reach a mortal part. We no longer resort 

 to nets, gins, and pitfalls to aid the dogs that drive her to destruction ; 

 nor do we uncouple hounds, one after another, at points of 'vantage, 

 after she has been roused, in order to make the more certain of 

 her capture. 



In ancient times not only the hare, but all beasts of chase, 

 had to run the gauntlet of relays of hounds of various kinds, and 

 also risk being driven into toils prepared for their capture. These 

 practices have long ceased in England, if, indeed, the use of nets 



