MODERN HARE-HUNTING loi 



wait until hounds can see her start from her form. 

 It is maintained by many that a view makes hounds 

 wild and gets their heads up. Personally, I see no 

 harm in the view. It must inevitably happen when 

 hounds, as they so frequently do, find their own hare. 

 I believe that it heartens and fires the pack, and is 

 effectual in giving the hare a sound fright, and so 

 inducing her to fly from her nearer haunts and give 

 a real good run. After all, the view, stirring as it is, 

 is not for long, and hounds are brought to their noses 

 at the first hedge. 



A view Holloa or two, as the hare jumps up and 

 hounds go off at score, does no great harm. But 

 it cannot be too much insisted that in hare-hunting 

 silence is golden. Why is it that every one who sees 

 a hare, unless, happily, he is an old stager, and under- 

 stands his business, must instantly start holloaing ? 

 The Master of a foot-pack with which I am well 

 acquainted prints always at the head of his post- 

 cards and lists of meets : " Horsemen are objected 

 to. Make no gaps, always close and fasten gates 

 after passing through, and never holloa when the 

 hounds are running." This last rule is the first axiom 

 of hare-hunting, yet it is the most frequently broke ri. 

 How many and many a hare has been lost by this 

 annoying practice ! Nine times out of ten, especially 

 in a country where hares are plentiful, the hare seen 

 by the too excitable onlooker who starts yelling is 

 not the hunted hare ; and if she is the hunted hare, 

 hounds are almost surely on her line. A hoUoa is 

 only justified when the person who has viewed the 

 hare understands his business, sees that hounds have 

 checked or lost, and knows that the hunted hare has 

 passed him. And still better than a hoUoa is the 

 practice of holding up a hat, or even a handkerchief. 



