1 6 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



not fail of being good hounds, for they would hunt 

 anything.' " 



In Beckford's time warren hares were often caught 

 in traps and occasionally turned down before hounds 

 and greyhounds, much as is a bag-fox with hounds at 

 the present day. Beckford gives directions in his 

 twelfth letter concerning the taking of these warren 

 hares. Trap-hares are, thank Heaven, seldom heard 

 of nowadays. Beckford himself, although he writes 

 of the custom of his time, seems to have been averse to 

 employing them for hunting. He recommended, if 

 they were to be used, that they should be turned down 

 wind, and the hounds hunted like a pack of foxhounds. 

 A trapped hare almost invariably ran straight, made 

 few or no doubles, and left a strong scent. 



It has been said by many enthusiastic fox-hunters 

 that Beckford took little account of hare-hunting. 

 This is erroneous. He preferred fox-hunting, but he 

 distinctly states in this letter (twelve) that he never 

 meant to depreciate this excellent form of sport. " It 

 is a good diversion," he says, " in a good country : 

 you are always certain of sport : and if you really 

 love to see your hounds hunt, the hare, when pro- 

 perly hunted, will show you more of it than any other 

 animal." 



Towards the end of the eighteenth century, even in 

 Beckford's time — he died in 1809 — it was becoming 

 the fashion to introduce a touch of foxhound blood 

 into the old harrier strain. In fact the dwarf fox- 

 hound had certainly made his appearance as a harrier 

 by the opening years of the nineteenth century. 

 From that time there have been two schools of harrier- 

 men in England : those who stick by the old harrier 

 blood — produced, originally, as Somervile and Beck- 

 ford produced their packs, by crossing the old Southern 



