164 ON HUNTING. 



" The great Meynell and Warwickshire Corbett both 

 entered their young hounds to hare, a practice which 

 cannot, however, be approved. The late Parson Froude, 

 in North Devon, than whom a keener sportsman never 

 holloaed to hounds, and the breeder of one of the best 

 packs for showing sport ever seen, hunted hare, fox, 

 deer, and even polecats, sooner than not keep his 

 darlings doing something ; and, while his hounds would 

 puzzle out the faintest scent, there were among the 

 leaders several that, with admirable dash, jumped every 

 gate, disdaining to creep. Some of this stock are still 

 hunting on Exmoor. There are at present several very 

 good M.F.H. who began with hare-hounds. 



" The intense pretentious snobbishness of the age 

 has something to do with the mysterious manner in 

 which many men, blushing, own that they have been 

 out with harriers. In the first place, as a rule, harriers 

 are slow; although there a*e days when, with a stout, 

 well-fed, straight-running hare, the best men will have 

 enough to do to keep their place in the field : over 

 the dinner-table that is always an easy task; but in 

 this fast, competitive age, the man who can contrive to 

 stick on a good horse can show in front without having 

 the least idea of the meaning of hunting. To such, 

 harriers afford no amusement. Then again, harrier 

 packs are of all degrees, from the perfection of the 

 Blackmoor Vale, the Brookside, and some Devon or 

 Welsh packs with unpronounceable names, down to the 

 little scratch packs of six or seven couple kept among 

 jovial farmers in out-of-the-way places, or for the amuse- 

 ment of Sheffield cutlers running afoot. The same failing 

 that makes a considerable class reverently worship an 

 alderman or a city baronet until they can get on speak- 



