HARE-HUNTING 



THE old system of hare-hunting with slow hounds, 

 which were frequently followed on foot, was going 

 out of fashion at the end of the eighteenth century. 

 Sport with the Southern hound ' or such heavy 

 dogs as Sussex Gentlemen use on the weald,' says William 

 Blaine in 1781, appealed to him ' that delights in a long chace 

 of six hours, often more, and to be with the dogs all the time.' 

 The delights of such prolonged hunts, however, had begun to 

 pall even on the most enthusiastic ; and really, unless the music 

 for which Southern hounds were so famous might be regarded 

 as the principal feature of the business, we cannot feel surprise. 

 These hounds had splendid noses, but their appreciation of 

 scent had drawbacks. On occasion, overcome by the delights 

 that were in their nostrils, the whole cry would sit down on the 

 line and, heeding naught else, upraise their voices in chorus of 

 ecstasy. This exhibition of music and emotion too frequently 

 resulted in the loss of the hare ; which, remarks Blaine tem- 

 perately, ' is by some thought necessary to complete the 

 sport.' 



Slow and phlegmatic, ' these grave sort of dogs ' were 

 peculiarly amenable to discipline and were usually ' hunted 

 under the pole,' as the old term had it. The huntsman 

 carried a light leaping-pole with which to vault fences and 

 brooks, and he had the pack under such command that he 

 could stop them at pleasure by throwing down the pole before 

 the pack. Sir Roger de Coverley's ' Stop hounds,' described 

 by Budgell in the Spectator,^ were manifestly of the Southern 

 breed. 



* 12th July 1711. Eustace Budgell, cousin of Addison, was a frequent contributor, 

 \^'e need not doubt that he describes such a hunt as any country gentleman enjoyed in 

 Queen Anne's time. 



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