770 MANUAL OF MODERN FAHRIERY 



and seldom fails to destroy the sport. Good sportsmen will 

 seldom ride on a line with the tail hounds. 



There is considerable diversity of opinion respecting the 

 choice of hounds for hare-hunting ; some preferring harriers, 

 while others think a chase with beagles far superior to that 

 of harriers. It has been maintained that those bred from 

 the southern hound and the northern beagle, and of a middle 

 size, are the best. The former dog is endowed with a much 

 higher sense of smelling, and they can frequently run a scent 

 an hour after the smaller beagle has given it up ; but this 

 caution makes them sure of every step they take, requires a 

 master as regular as themselves, and to the sportsman who 

 wishes for a dashing gallop, their exactness renders them 

 tedious and trifling : as they are able to hunt a cold scent, 

 they are too apt to make it so, by their want of mettle and 

 courage to push forward. 



The north country beagle is nimble and vigorous; he 

 pursues the hare with impetuosity, gives her no time to 

 double, and if the scent lies high will easily run down two 

 brace during a forenoon. 



Colonel Hardy had at one time ten or eleven couple of 

 beagles, which were always carried to and from the field in a 

 large pair of panniers, slung across a horse ; and, small as 

 they were, they would keep a hare at all her shifts to escape 

 them, and often woiTy her to death ; but it was similar to 

 that species of hunting where a fox was hunted in Devon- 

 shire-House gardens : it might be endured as a novelty, but 

 no one would ever wish to behold it a second time. A small 

 ])arn was the allotted kennel of this pack, the door of which 

 was one night broken open, and every hound, with the pan- 

 niers, stolen, nor could the most diligent search discover the 

 least trace of the robbers, or their booty. 



The conquest of the hare does not alone depend on vigor- 



