THE HARE AND ITS WAYS 59 



Irishman, " we can kill a Frenchman anny day, but 

 it isn't always that I can bag a hare for your supper." 

 During the Peninsular War Sir Harry Smith and other 

 officers not only kept greyhounds and coursed hares, 

 but even managed to get together some harriers, and 

 hunted them when they had leisure and opportunity. 

 In concluding this chapter on hares, I do not think 

 I can do better than quote some words of Beckford's 

 on the pursuit of this animal — words which I think 

 ought to be pondered by every harrier-man. " I 

 hope you will agree with me, that it is a fault in a pack 

 of harriers to go too fast ; for a hare is a little timorous 

 animal that we cannot help feeling some compassion 

 for, at the very time when we are pursuing her de- 

 struction : we should give scope to all her little tricks, 

 not kill her foully and over-matched. Instinct in- 

 structs her to make a good defence when not unfairly 

 treated ; and I will venture to say that, as far as 

 her own safety is concerned, she has more cunning 

 than the fox, and makes many shifts to save her life 

 far beyond all his artifice." 



