194 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



hounds will straggle in the field, and a good deal of 

 patience wiU be required. The whip should not be 

 too often used. Much punishment at this stage 

 frightens and discourages the young entry. The 

 huntsman must, and usually does, possess his soul in 

 patience, and the juveniles begin pretty soon to under- 

 stand something of the great game in which they are 

 destined to take a part. It is interesting, indeed, 

 to note their growing keenness, and how almost imper- 

 ceptibly they begin to fall into the ways of the old 

 hands. Instinct, breeding, and usage finally accom- 

 plish their work, and the young hound is now an 

 integral part of the pack, beginning to take his place. 

 It is an oft-debated point, and I suppose always 

 will be to the end of hunting time, whether or no 

 harriers should be kept to hares alone, or should be 

 allowed, as they often are, especially in countries 

 where hares are scarce, to hunt fox and deer. Beckford 

 himself, a very high authority, is clear upon the 

 question. He says, " Harriers, to be good, like all 

 other hounds, must be kept to their own game : if 

 you run fox with them you spoil them. Hounds 

 cannot be perfect, unless used to one scent and one 

 style of hunting. Harriers run fox in so different a 

 style from hare, that it is of great disservice to them 

 when they return to hare again : it makes them wild 

 and teaches them to skirt. The high scent which a 

 fox leaves, the straightness of his running, the eagerness 

 of the pursuit, and the noise that generally accom- 

 panies it, all contribute to spoil a harrier." I am 

 bound to say that I am old-fashioned enough to agree 

 entirely with Beckford's reasoning. I have watched 

 harriers run both fox and deer, and, in my opinion, 

 their real qualities and capacity for hunting their 

 proper quarry, the hare, were thereby materially 



