PRIVATE COURSING 125 



most of their one day's sport. Pity it is that the 

 Hares and Rabbits Act has put an end to such 

 innocent country amusements, and driven the small 

 faruiers and their labourers to the nearest towns for 

 amusement in their leisure time ; but there is no 

 getting away froui the fact that the Act referred to has 

 done immense harm, and I am told that there has 

 been no coursing on the High Law Farm for at least 

 ten years, owing to the scarcity of hares. However 

 good a sportsman a farmer might be, and no matter 

 how njuch he tried to keep a head of hares, what was 

 he to do when he knew that his neighbours were 

 popping away at poor puss on every available occa- 

 sion, and that if a hare left his farm in search of a 

 meal, someone was lying in wait for her, who would 

 shoot her from ambush as she lobbed down the 

 hedgeside. It makes one who has known country 

 coursing, and enjoyed sport with harriers in many 

 places where neither now exists, infinitely sad to know 

 that there are so few hares left, for, with the sole 

 exception of the fox, no English animal ever afforded 

 so much or so varied sport ; and what is saddest of 

 all is that no sort of amusement has arisen in place 

 of coursing and hare-hunting in those places where 

 both sports used to flourish. 



To return, however, to High Law. We generally 



