292 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



by foxlumting', and its tendency to promote good- 

 fellowship and more social intercourse between the 

 higher and lower classes^ we will confine our re- 

 marks to the sport itself, and the cause which may 

 be disposed to claim for it this distinction from all 

 other field sports. The most devoted harehunter 

 must admit that, although his game may exhibit 

 great cunning and ingenuity in her various strata- 

 gems to avoid her pursuers, and occasionally imitate 

 the fox by taking a forward course for some miles, 

 yet, as a general rule, her running is confined to the 

 circular rather than the straight line. When first 

 routed from her form, with the currant jelly dogs in 

 full cry, and hard upon her scent, she goes away at 

 full speed, quickly distancing her enemies ; but at 

 the first check the natural instinct of the animal is 

 brought into play. Unfitted for prolonged exertions, 

 she betakes herself to those devious movements 

 which have sometimes gained for her the sobriquet 

 of a witch ; and on this point Beckford very per- 

 tinently remarks, '' We have heard of hares as 

 witches, but never of foxes as wizards f in fact, no 

 two animals of venery can be more dissimilar in 

 their tactics. 



The hare is fitted for rapid flight, more rapid than 

 the fox for a certain time, but she possesses not the 

 power of endurance characteristic of the more 

 robustly formed fox. The power of the hare being 

 quickly exhausted, she has recourse to those tricks 

 and devices which now seem to come instinctively to 

 her aid. Without any shelter to seek, or home 

 underground in which to hide her diminished head — 



