HA RE-HUNTING -ANCIENT AND MODERN 195 



much the same way as that of the fox. Many packs 

 of harriers are recognised local institutions, supported 

 either wholly or partly by subscriptions, whilst others 

 are owned and kept by private individuals ; but all 

 have their settled days of hunting, and most have 

 their recognised area of country, and do not trespass 

 on each other's territories. The sound advice of 

 Beckford, not to take hounds out on a very windy 

 day, can no longer be followed in hare-hunting any 

 more than in fox-hunting, for fixtures when made 

 must be kept, or the master would soon get into 

 trouble. 



Instead of the old plan of going out early in the 

 morning and hunting the trail of a hare up to her 

 seat, the meets are now usually about eleven o'clock, 

 when hounds can seldom do much in the way of un- 

 ravelling the hare's nocturnal wanderings, and she has 

 to be looked for in the most likely places, according 

 to the local information supplied to the master. . The 

 run itself, too, is a somewhat different affair ; hounds 

 must be faster, and possessed of more driving powers 

 than of old, for, if the scent is really good, from 

 twenty to forty minutes generally ends the career of 

 a hare, while even what is now called a slow hunting 

 run will seldom much exceed an hour and a half — 

 rather a change from the chases of several hours' 



