318 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



another hare ; and this, I think, would be the case with 

 a pack of harriers, where game was too plentiful. To 

 run two or three good hares down in a day is sufficient 

 entertainment for man, horse, and hound, particularly as 

 we are not to make a serious business of it. 



In these days, good hare-hunting countries are become 

 scarce ; the battue men repudiate them on one side, and 

 the numerous packs of foxhounds snub them on the 

 other ; so that our poor friends, the thistle-whippers, have 

 a very poor chance for their amusement. There is cer- 

 tainly a prejudice against harriers, and I think a veiy 

 unfounded and unjust one. Where they are well con- 

 ducted, with a real gentleman sportsman as their owner, 

 they cannot materially, if at all, interfere with either fox- 

 hunting or game-preserving; but it must be admitted 

 that a pack of curs, with anything but a gentleman at 

 their head, is a perfect nuisance in any country hunted 

 by foxhounds. When T kept foxhounds there were two 

 packs of harriers in my country ; but their owners were 

 gentlemen, and became particular friends of my own, 

 and they never in any way interfered with our sport. 

 But there was also, at the extreme point of our country, 

 a scratch pack of curs, with a cur manager as well, which 

 were my abomination. They were perpetually at some 

 underhand work, running into my fox coverts on purpose ; 

 that is, pretending to run a hare there, and then finding 

 a fox ; buying up foxes to turn out on the sly, and dis- 

 turbing the country the day before the foxhounds were 

 appointed to meet there. Such tricks as these give rise 

 to and perpetuate the dislike which is often found to 

 prevail with masters of foxhounds against harriers. But 

 where each man legitimately follows his own calling, 



