2o8 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



a good deal of my sport (the Hailsham), kills usually 

 from fifty to sixty-five hares in a fair season. Big 

 scores are not always to be taken as proof of the finest 

 hunting. After all, a rattling good hunt, with a hare 

 pulled down at the end of it, is far better than a mudd- 

 ling day with two or three hares chopped, or killed 

 in short feeble chases. 



A good harrier huntsman is not to be picked up 

 readily. His education must, necessarily, be a slow 

 and a gradual one. Only years of constant practice 

 in the field, united with an acute mind, keen facul- 

 ties, and a strong frame, can equip a man properly for 

 such a post. An old gentleman, seventy years of age, 

 who had hunted with all sorts of hounds, was once con- 

 gratulated upon his perfect science in the art of hunting 

 hare. He protested vigorously that the life of man 

 was too short to allow of any one attaining perfection 

 in this difficult art. It is certain that a man may 

 hunt hounds for thirty or forty years of his life, and 

 yet in his next essay learn some new wrinkle in his 

 art. There are innumerable things which may arise 

 during the progress of a day's hunting to alter the chase 

 and spoil a successful run, A huntsman must have 

 his wits constantly on the alert. Even if his pack be 

 a good one, it is by no means odds on his handling 

 the hare in front of him. Rather are the odds usually 

 the other way. Every hare has its particular idiosyn- 

 crasies and tricks. The change of atmosphere, or of 

 soil, or of wind, a burst of sunshine, the coming up of 

 a storm, the vanishing of frost, the crossing of a stream, 

 all these and fifty other causes, which may operate 

 against success, have to be carefully noted, and their 

 effects guarded against. The taint of sheep, curs 

 which may course the hare, fresh hares springing up, 

 foot people heading the quarry, are always fruitful 



