46 THE HUNTING FIELD 



up for anything — archbishops, if they saw an opening 

 — and we think they would almost as soon fulfil the 

 duties of one as the other. It is not every wide- 

 throated fellow with "nought to do, and who likes 

 hontin vastly," as they say in Yorkshire, that will 

 make a Huntsman — not a Huntsman to foxhounds, 

 though we are not sure but a good bow-backed 

 pedestrian, with his head well down to the ground 

 for "pricking," would not make as good a harrier 

 Huntsman as the best. The two offices are as 

 different as horse-riding and donkey-riding. They 

 both " go," certainly, but the " stop " of the business 

 is the thing. And yet we have seen fellows who, 

 because they have been able to circumvent a hare, 

 have thought themselves qualified for foxhounds. 

 The simile of the horse and the ass may be 

 carried still further. Turn a horse loose and you 

 don't know where he will go ; but give a donkey his 

 head, and see if he won't stop. It is just the same 

 with a fox and a hare. You never know where a 

 fox is bound, but a hare is almost invariably within 

 the circle of the " magic ring." The fox is travel- 

 ling, the hare perhaps squatting under your horse's 

 feet. So far from having hunted harriers being a 

 qualification for hunting foxhounds, we should say 

 it was a downright objection. You have to unteach 

 the harrier man all he knows, before you begin to 

 teach. Better have a fresh horn and begin a new 

 spoon. We would rather have a fellow from the 

 roughest pack going, whose constant pursuit had 

 been " fox," than one of these psalm-singing gentry. 

 Not that we decry harehunting as a sport; 

 legitimately followed it is capital amusement, but we 

 should never take a Huntsman for foxhounds from 

 a pack of harriers. Instead of thinking which way 

 the fox had gone, he would be always thinking which 

 way he had come. 



We once heard of a harrier genius who, on the 



