THE HARRIER 189 



change, and to make the fun easy for feather-bed sportsmen, 

 hare-finders were employed to mark down the seated game. Now 

 the prevailing custom is to beat up the hare without such help, 

 and the agreeable work of looking for and finding is only less than 

 the more exciting pleasure of pursuit. 



As, allowing for minor changes in the lapse of time, Beckford 

 is still the head of all authorities, and his descriptions are generically 

 true, we quote his remarks on hare-hunting a sport, by the way, 

 to which he was not partial, but took to as the best substitute for 

 his favourite fox-hunting, because, as he declared, he could not 

 ride along a turnpike road. 



He formed his Harriers by a cross of large, slow-hunting 

 Harriers and the little Fox-Beagle, holding that " the former were 

 too dull, too heavy, and too slow ; the latter too lively, too light, 

 and too fleet." He adds : 



" As the trail of a hare lays both partially and imperfectly in 

 proportion to the length of time elapsed since she went to her seat, 

 so is the difficulty of finding increased in proportion to the late or 

 early hour at which the hounds are thrown off; hence it is, that 

 the attendants upon different packs, under the denomination of 

 hare-finders, so very little known or required at that time, are now 

 become so truly and unavoidably instrumental to the sport of the 

 day. Although the services of these people are always welcome 

 to the anxious and expectant sportsman, yet it is admitted, by 

 every judicious and competent observer, they are exceedingly pre- 

 judicial to the good order and regular discipline of hounds ; for, 

 having occasionally such assistance, they become habitually in- 

 dolent and progressively wild ; the game being so frequently and 

 easily found for them, they become individually and conjunctively 

 indifferent to the trouble of finding it for themselves. Those who 

 are accustomed to have their hares found sitting, know the hare- 

 finders as well as they know the huntsman, and will not only, upon 

 sight, set off to meet him, but have their heads eternally thrown 

 up in the air in expectation of a view holloa ! Packs of Harriers 

 well managed and disciplined are quietly brought up to the place 

 of meeting, and, when thrown off, a general silence should prevail, 

 that every hound may be permitted to do his own work. 



Those well bred and properly broke seldom stand in need of 

 assistance ; officious intrusions frequently do more harm than 

 good. . . . Young sportsmen, like young hounds, are too much 

 accustomed to babbling when newly entered ; and often, by 

 frivolous questions or obtrusive conversation, attract the attention 

 of the hounds, and insure the silent curse or public reproach of 

 the huntsman. 



Those who keep Harriers vary considerably in their modes 



