HARRIERS 



By J. S. CllBBONS 



chapt]':r I 



HARE-HUNTING ANCIENT AND ISIODERN 



The sport of lumting a hare with a pack of hounds 

 is so old that, in comparison with it, fox-hunting is but 

 a plant of mushroom growth. We can, indeed, find 

 no record to decide when this particular form of 

 sport was hrst practised ; but if we go back to the 

 time when old Xenophon cheered his hounds on the 

 slopes of Mount Pholoe it is far enough for practical 

 purposes ; fvyf, euye, w Kurec was a bit of the hound 

 language of that day, and doubtless as well under- 

 stood by the pack as the ' hunting noises ' of a later 

 generation. In many respects, no doubt, the sport 

 was different then ; the hounds must have been slow, 

 very slow, for the means of catching the hare were by 

 nets placed across the runs which, in the judgment of 

 the huntsman of the time, the hare was likely to use 



