150 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



enjoyment of the chorus of the whole body close at a 

 fox in hollow covert, not caring to look for a view within, 

 a farmer, one of the most knowing of those who do hnoii\ 

 who had protested in the first instance against the reality 

 of the find, rode up to me, almost breathless with haste, 

 exclaiming, " Stop them, for heaven's sake ! and if I was 

 in your place, sir, I would hang the whole pack. They 

 are running hare, and nothing else ; I have seen her close 

 before them these three rings that they have brought 

 her round." Quietly expressing my full belief that his 

 eyes had not deceived him as to the hare, I promised 

 him, if he would remain a moment with me, to show him 

 something else ; however improbable he might think it, 

 that a fox should be, where nothing but a hare or rabbit 

 was visible. I had scarcely spoken, before the gallant 

 fellow broke over the open, with the pack at his brush, 

 as I did not thinh, but hneiv, they had been for the pre- 

 ceding five minutes. The farmer good humouredly 

 remarked, that " seeing was not believing," and he pro- 

 bably read a lesson that day, which may avail him, as a 

 fox-hunter, for the rest of his time. If you see hounds, 

 which you know are to be depended upon, running out 

 of sight or hearing of others, and have not time or oppor- 

 tunity of giving notice to huntsman or whippers in, you 

 cannot do wrong in endeavouring to lift those which are 

 upon no scent, with a " go hark cry, hark forward, for. 

 ward hark !" capping them on, at the same time, to those 

 that are on the line ; and, again, after viewing a fox 

 a'way, you will never do otherwise than good in stopping. 



