14 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



granddaughters) — of Beckford himself, and of his 

 favourite horses and hounds. 



Beckford's great book was pubHshed in 1781. It 

 was soon recognised as a standard work — one may 

 say the standard work — on hunting, and has retained 

 its authority and its popularity down to the present 

 day. Beckford, like Somervile, had a touch of the 

 modern spirit, he wrote easily and well, with a vein 

 of pleasantly caustic humour ; and although it is one 

 hundred and twenty-five years since his volume first 

 appeared, he can be read with pleasure by the reader 

 of the twentieth century, while his facts and inferences 

 are practically as valuable now as when they were 

 first perused. Many editions testify to the high esti- 

 mation in which " Thoughts on Hunting" has always 

 been held. 



Beckford was by choice a foxhunter, and the greater 

 part of his book is devoted to that branch of the chase. 

 He had, however, at one time kept harriers, and his 

 letters on hare-hunting are to the full as pithy and as 

 informing as the rest of his volume. He devoted three 

 chapters — or letters — to the sport of hare-hunting, and 

 his remarks may well be pondered even by the present- 

 day harrier-man. Beckford bred his harriers between 

 the large, slow, hunting harrier and the little fox- 

 beagle ; " the former," he says, " are too dull, too 

 heavy, and too slow ; the latter too lively, too light, 

 and too fleet." The fox-beagle, it may be noted, was 

 for generations employed, before the regular chase of 

 the fox with foxhounds came into vogue ; reynard 

 being considered in those days as mere vermin, to be 

 run to earth and knocked on the head as speedily as 

 possible. 



"The first species," continues Beckford, "it is true, 

 have excellent noses and, I make no doubt, will kill 



