CHAPTER VI 



MODERN HARE-HUNTING 



Ancient and modern customs — Strength of pack — 

 Number of hunting-days — The Meet — Hare-finders 

 — The view — Foot-hunting maxims — The Master 

 and his responsibihties — Hounds must not be pressed 

 — The check — Huntsman's duties — Casting hounds 

 — Woodlands and their troubles — Small coverts — 

 How a hare foils her line — Sheep — Hares squatting 

 — Sinking quarry — The death — Lost hares recovered 

 — Evils of fresh hares and constant changing — Scent 

 and its mysteries — Diplomacy of hare-hunting 



The conduct of a modem hare-hunt differs, as I have 

 shown, a great deal from the style of our forefathers. 

 It is brisker, smarter, and less dragging. Instead 

 of rising in the dark and following up the trail of a 

 hare which had been afoot during the night, until 

 she was traced to her form and thence put up, the 

 hare-hunter at the present day prefers, very wisely, 

 to reserve his energies for a considerably later hour. 

 The sportsman of 1780 had but two, or at most three, 

 posts a week, even if he lived within a hundred miles 

 of London, and those in remoter districts fared much 

 worse. None of them had the pleasure of a glance 

 at a morning paper or the convenience of opening 

 their letters before starting for the chase. The modem 

 sportsman gets his breakfast comfortably, has time 

 for a look at papers and correspondence, is in the 



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