CHAPTER VI 



HAKES 



One of the great advantages of hare-hunting is 

 that it can be carried on in a very unpretentious 

 way, and at little cost, and no extensive tract of 

 country is required in order to enjoy a great deal 

 of real sport. A hare is remarkably cunning, 

 almost more so than a fox, and is even a greater 

 test of a huntsman's skill if it has fair play and 

 is not raced to death by fast hounds, as is too 

 much the fashion of the present day. Small 

 foxhounds go too fast to give a hare a chance 

 of employing all its wiles ; and as the tendency 

 of a hare is nearly always to come round in 

 a circle, there is not the same inducement to hard 

 riders to demand pace, with the object of cutting 

 down the field, when the odds are that before 

 long the last will have become first through no 

 skill of their own, but rather by the force of cir- 

 cumstances. With harriers the chief object should 

 be real " hunting " in contrast to " riding," and 

 enjoyment sought in watching the hounds puzzle 

 out the doubles and various shifts of the hare, 

 more than in galloping and jumping fences. 



The style of hunting should be quite different 

 from that of a fox, for with the latter when a 



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