THE HOUNDS. 177 



trying to kill the liare themselves if it comes near them. Of course an 

 occasional kill is good for the hounds, and is specially important when we 

 have voung hounds out, so that liicy may be " blooded," and taugiit the 

 object of hunting. It is al<o customary to '"blood" the young sons of 

 beaglers, if they happen to be up at the death their first time out ; this 

 ceremony is i^erformed by rubbing a blood-stained finger on their cheek. 

 W. K. Hall once ventured to initiate a little girl, daughter of one of our well- 

 known beaglers, in this manner, aiul was called "a beast" for his pains, 

 although the blood of the hare was a very popular cosmetic among the 

 ladies of ancient Rome. If a run is not ended by a kill, it is because the 

 b.are has beaten us by some of its numerous wiles, and if we cannot pick 

 up the line again, we either try for another hare, or, if late in the day, go 

 home. 



TLbc Xurcbcr. 



" Hence ; home, you idle creatures ; get you home ; 

 Is this a holy day? What ! know ye nor. 

 Being mechanical, you ciuglu not walk." 



Julius Ctcsnr, act /, scene i. 



As the lurcher is one of the chief enemies to hare-hunting in a district 

 like ours, which has been for the last fifty years infested, so to speak, with 

 navvies and (juairvmen — most of whom are supposed to be fond of a little 

 quiet poaching — a description of the animal will not be out of place in this 

 volume. In Wirral, especially on Sundays, may be often noticed a gang of 

 eight or ten men of the above class, accompanied by two or more lurchers, 

 strolling about the fields and lanes, evidently on the look-out for game. 

 Farmers complain that if they accost them and forbid the trespass on their 

 land, they are simply defied and even threatened, the men being confident in 

 their numbers and rough appearance. There can be little doubt that lurchers 

 kill more hares in ^^'inal than the beagles and harriers combined. 



Hugh Dalzell, in his British £>ogs, published 1SS7, has the following 

 very good description of the lurcher : — 



It would be in vain to look for the lurclicr in the streets or parks of London, 

 in any of our considerable towns, or at any of our dog shows. In some of our 

 manufacturing towns he is kept, though out of sight. His appearance is so 

 suggestive that the modesty and retiring disposition of his master will not allow 

 him to parade the dog before public ga/;e. The lurcher is, in fact, par excellence 

 the poacher's dog ; and those who desire to see him must look for him in the 

 rural districts. There look out for the jobbing labourer, the man who never 

 works but from dire necessity, a sturdily-built but rather slouching fellow, whose 

 very gait and carriage — half swagger, half lurch — proclaim the midnight prowler, 

 and close to his heels, or crouched at his feet beneath the ale-house bench, you 

 will find the object of your search. 



The lurcher is by no means the ugly brute he is sometimes described to be ; 

 true, they vary greatly, and the name more properly describes the peculiar 



V 



