1 88 BRITISH DOGS 



was ever in vogue here. The Mayster of Game says : " Men 

 slee hares with Greyhoundes and with Rennynghoundes as in 

 England ; but ellis where they slee hem with smale pocketes and 

 with pursenettes and w 1 smale nettes, with hair pipes and with 

 long nettis, and with smale cordes that men casten where thei 

 mak here brekyng of the smale twygges whan thei goon to hure 

 pasture." 



In the classic ages hounds and nets combined were used in 

 hare-hunting, and Xenophon, writing 500 B.C., gives minutely- 

 detailed accounts of the methods used, and of the dogs employed, 

 which embraced many varieties of the type of our hounds ; for 

 the Greyhound, running by sight and outspeeding the hare, was 

 unknown to him. It is pleasant to read that Xenophon, with the 

 instincts of a true sportsman, forbade the nets and gins, set for 

 the capture of the hare during the hunt, to be left standing when 

 the game was over ; that was, at least, a step towards fair-play 

 to the quarry. From that very ancient date, down to the first part of 

 the eighteenth century, it was the general custom to hunt hares in 

 the early morning, so that what was considered a good day's sport, 

 with, perhaps, several hares accounted for by the hounds, had been 

 enjoyed, and an appetite for lunch obtained, by the hour sportsmen 

 now think of turning out of the stableyard to go to the meet. The 

 otter-hunters are almost the only sportsmen nowadays who can 

 be called early risers. There was, above and beyond what has 

 been suggested, a. special advantage in hunting the hare in the early 

 morning. The hare being, to a great extent, a night-feeder, goes 

 to her seat, or form, in the morning, and, by taking the hounds 

 out then, they, coming across her trail, have a stronger scent to 

 lead them up to her seat than when she is sought in her form and 

 then pursued. This fact, well known to every sportsman, was 

 recognised and described by the old Greek hare-hunter, who says, 

 according to Elaine's translation : " The scent of the hare going 

 to her form lasts longer than that of her course when pursued. 

 When she goes to her form, she goes slowly, often stopping; but 

 her course, when pursued, is performed running ; therefore, the 

 ground is saturated with the one and not filled with the other." 

 Anyone who has watched a hare in early morning, stealing leisurely 

 along a fence, from her feeding-ground, to squat in the open, among 

 rushes or tussocks of grass, or to shelter in the plantation, must 

 have noticed the easy-going style, apparently unconscious of sur- 

 roundings, except when every now and again, on some hillock, 

 she stops, with ears erect, to take a general survey, and make sure 

 that there are no enemies near. 



It is about a hundred years since the fashion of late meets 

 came into vogue, and the hunter's horn ceased to proclaim the 

 morn in competition with shrill-voiced chanticleer. With this 



