270 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



however, would as a rule quickly discover their mis- 

 take, and would puzzle out all the daybreak turns and 

 twists made by an animal that had been feeding, and 

 was not being pursued. Sooner or later puss would be 

 located, and then, as often as not, she was pushed 

 from her form by some one who carried a pole, there 

 being always a danger that she might be chopped if 

 hounds were allowed to work right up to her form. 

 Hounds almost invariably got a view as the result of 

 this procedure, and then began a hunt, which lasted 

 minutes or hours (more frequently the latter) according 

 to the quality of the scent and the speed of the pack. 

 All this sort of thing has long been voted slow, and 

 now hounds meet at any hour of the forenoon, and in 

 the case of foot beagles even later, and draw for their 

 hares, amongst root crops and over fallows if it is an 

 arable country, and in rough grass if it is a country of 

 pasture. Whether the old plan or the modern one is 

 the best is of little consequence, but this is an age of 

 hurry, and many of the crack packs of the present 

 day run and kill four, five, and even half a dozen hares 

 in a shorter time than the old packs would have taken 

 in bringing a single hare to hand. 



But the greatest change of all has taken place with 

 regard to hounds. Not more than a generation ago 

 harriers were of all shapes and sizes, and of a whole 

 host of colours which are rarely seen now. Some 

 few packs — generally very old establishments — have 

 stuck to their guns both as regards make, shape, and 

 colour, but many more have become of the dwarf fox- 

 hound sort, and broadly speaking, the modern harrier 

 may be said to be of this type. Moreover, new packs 

 of harriers are constantly being formed, while scores of 

 packs have only a brief existence. And every new 



