Drag-Hunting with the South Co. Dublin Harriers 



We had been strangers, he and I, until very recently. 

 This was our first hunt together, but now we were 

 bosom friends. We understood each other perfectly 

 and worked in ideal unison. All the honour is due to 

 gallant " Rathdowney," for were it not for his stout 

 heart and unbounded courage I would never have heard 

 that far-off faint note of a hound and would have been 

 tramping off alone and disconsolate, with half the clay 

 of County Dublin on my back. 



Two horsemen were coming to meet me. They were 

 riding the length of a long wire fence. The black cob 

 with the red ribbon and the Huntsman's grey led me 

 through a hedge that was a worthy understudy for a 

 jungle. In a moment we three were sitting behind 

 hounds and were glorying in the ecstasy that is the 

 thrilling music of full cry. 



Now I had a rare chance to see these hounds really 

 running. We were going all-out down a gentle slope. 

 These drag-hounds were not carrying a head as fox- 

 hounds do. They were not running closely as a fox- 

 hound pack, each fighting for the lead. They were 

 strung out .... but they were travelling ! The extra- 

 ordinarily dense hedges may have been responsible for 

 their stringing out. In a wall country they might run 

 differently, but there was no doubt about their speed. 

 They were travelling at a grand pace and found time 

 to throw in plenty of tongue as a luckpenny. 



For about two miles more we three had the show 

 entirely to ourselves. Then near a cosy little cottage 

 on a main road we had our first check. Here we three 

 waited, thoroughly pleased with ourselves, while the 



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