179 



CHAPTER XVI. 



HARES, AND HARE-HUNTING. 



" But if thou needs wilt hunt, be ruled by me : 



Uncouple at the timorous, flying hare ; 

 Or at the fox, which lives by subtilty ; 



Or at the roe, which no encounter dare : 

 Pursue these fearful creatures o'er the downs. 

 And on thy well-breathed horse keep with thy hounds ; 



And when thou hast on foot the puriilind hare, 



Mark tlie poor wretch, to over-shut his troubles 

 How he outruns the wind, and with what care 

 He cranks and crosses, with a thousand doubles. 

 The many musits through the which he goes, 

 Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes. 



Sometimes lie runs among a flock of sheep. 



To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell ; 

 And sometime where earth-delving conies keep. 

 To stop the loud pursuers in their yell ; 

 And sometime .sorteth with a herd of deer ; 

 Danger deviseth shifts ; wit waits on fear ; 



For there his smell with others being mingled. 



The hot scent- snuffing hounds are driven to doubt, 

 Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled, 

 Witli much ado, the cold f.tult cleanly out : 

 Then do they spend their mouths ; Echo replies, 

 As if another chase were in the skies. 



By this, poor Wat, far oflf upon a hill. 



Stands on his hinder legs with listening ear, 

 To hearken if his foes pursue him still ; 

 Anon their loud alarums he doth hear ; 

 And now his grief may be compared well 

 To one sore-sick, that hears the passing bell. 



Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch 



Turn, and return, indenting with the way ; 

 Each envious briar his weary legs doth scratch ; 

 Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay : 

 For misery is trodden on by many ; 

 And, being low, never relieved by any." ycitiis and Adonis. 



The beagler should know something about the game he hunts, and in 

 the course of his experience in the field he hears many things about hares, 

 some true, but mostly false. This does not disturb him in the least, for the 

 average sportsman simply looks on a hare as an animal made to run before 

 hounds for the delectation of mankind. 



Let the reader ask himself what he knows about hares, and he will be 

 surprised at the small extent of his real knowledge. He knows a hare when 

 he sees it (unless he mistakes a rabbit for one) ; he knows that it is a wild 

 animal, plentifully distributed over the country; that it does not live in 

 burrows ; that it affords sport for hound and gun ; that it is extremely fleet 

 of foot and easily scared to flight ; and, finally, that it is exceedingly good to 



