Past ana Present. 127 



Moorland liares and foxes are proverbially 

 stronger and stouter than their kinsmen in the 

 fields and coverts below. In the case of foxes, 

 this is in a great measure due to the fact that 

 those on the hill are not preserved. No artificial 

 means, such as semi-confinement for some months, 

 hand feeding or the like, are employed with 

 them, they are the product of nature throughout, 

 and often worth two or three of the half 

 tame, hand-reared, ring-running beggars, which, 

 together with the sport-spoiling disease of mange, 

 are the product of the last decade of last century, 

 when shooting became so popular. Moorland hares 

 are stouter, too, and in some instances, I have 

 known them make almost fox-points. It is said 

 a good scent makes a good fox or hare, and this, 

 no doubt, in a measure, is the case. On the hills, 

 scent is often good when there is not a particle 

 in the low coimtry. The heather will frequently 

 carry a scent when it is almost too hot to ride. 

 These facts together — the wildness of foxes and 

 and the excellence of heather as a scent carrier — 

 explain the many wonderful runs which have 



