NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



desirable. But ours is a pack of true harrier blood, 

 steady and well conducted, fast enough to kill hares, 

 yet not so fast as to course them to death without a fair 

 hunt. And whether the hare is viewed, or whether, as 

 happens this morning, hounds are laid on after reason- 

 able law is given, it matters usually very little. 



It seems to make no difference at all to a hare — unlike 

 the fox — whether she runs up or down wind. To-day 

 our quarry runs fast down wind for half a mile, and 

 then, turning somewhat abruptly, faces the easterly 

 breeze, swings past the outskirts of the village at which 

 we met, races swiftly past the grey and ivied walls of 

 the old ruined castle of Pevensey and the ancient church 

 adjoining, and, hieing to the open marshes, sweeps 

 round presently in a ring. Hounds follow briskly, but, 

 after executing an almost complete circle and coming 

 back close to the hare's old seat, scent suddenly begins 

 to fail them. Who shall explain or account for the 

 mysteries of this most inexplicable of subjects? Just 

 now at times the line seems absolutely to have vanished, 

 and although they are on grass, the staunch hounds can 

 make nothing of it. There seem to be vast gaps in the 

 trail of the hunted hare, as though she had flown and 

 not touched the ground with her feet at all. 



However, with patience, we gradually make good the 

 line, and for the second time complete the ring of this 

 circling quarry. Now she has squatted, and, after some 

 hunting about, she springs up almost within reach of 

 some of the hounds, and bounds down a little grass 

 lane with but a few yards separating her from the leaders 

 of the pack. As she passes us, with ears laid flat back, 

 we notice that she is travel-stained, and no longer 

 moves with quite her early freedom. She has been 

 running now close on forty minutes, and the grim, un- 

 relenting chase is beginning to tell its inevitable tale. 



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