HARE HUNTING. 55 



up a scent go away at a slow pace. The object of the doo-s 

 being not to catch the hare, but to drive her up to the sports- 

 man and his gun, the latter posts himself in some favour- 

 able place, lights his pipe, and waits patiently. And verily 

 he needs patience, for even Job would have lashed out, had 

 he waited for half a day at a cross-road, and the wind in 

 the east. The dogs may be miles off slowly pushing the 

 hare before them, but at last their baying comes near. 

 The sportsman looks alive, and shakes out his pipe, but the 

 , noise recedes ; again it approaches, again he looks about 

 him, and again is disappointed, and so on, sometimes, for a 

 whole day, for you must just wait for your dogs. They 

 are the real masters of the sport ; without them you can 

 do nothing ; and they come and go as they please. There 

 is no excitement, and little room for skill. If puss does 

 pass near you, she does so lumping and squatting, and gives 

 you next thing to a sitting shot. In truth, it is but puling 

 sj)ort. It may do well enough for an invalid in a sedan 

 chair, or an elderly female ; but as good sport may be had 

 with tame poultry in a farmyard, or rabbits in a hutch. 



In the way of hunting or riding to hounds there is nothing 

 in Britanny. Riding is generally at a discount in France, 

 and in Britanny the women are the best riders. They ride 

 astride, and apparently wdth ease ; but I must say it always 

 went against the grain to see strings of women jogging 

 in from the country, all riding like men, and displaying 

 beauties which Heaven knows suffe^^ed dreadfully from 

 exposure. The Breton leg, male or female, is a defor- 

 mity. The men have no calf, while the women have two, 

 the lower one being about the ankle ; and this gives an 



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