SOME NOTABLE RUNS 233 



not stop them for some time. Having succeeded and 

 got them on the road for home, they again hit off the 

 hne of the deer and ran nearly back to Corbalton. 

 Here we saw her in front of hounds dead beat. She 

 got into a ditch in the next field and died while being 

 taken out by two men, whether from the effects of 

 the run or from striking some wire with which she 

 had come in contact I don't know. She was a cele- 

 brated deer, Drogheda Lass, and had given the Wards 

 many fine hunts. We found that, though the best 

 point was only nine miles, we had covered between 

 twenty-two and twenty-three miles of the finest 

 country in Meath." These instances serve to show 

 that, when hunting deer, harriers are fully as capable 

 as foxhounds of showing magnificent sport. From my 

 own point of view, although I should much have liked 

 to have seen Parson Froude's harriers pull down a 

 wild Exmoor red deer after a run of four hours I 

 prefer to see harriers hunt hare, which is to my mind 

 their true and natural vocation. Mr. Dove tells me that 

 in one of his harriers' runs after outlying deer their 

 hind swam two miles down the centre of the Boyne 

 river, a curious performance. This was a very cunning 

 deer, which used constantly to take to the river. 



Coming to the real thing, one of the finest hare hunts 

 of which I have record, is that of a great run with the 

 Cotley harriers during the time of the grandfather of 

 the present Master, Mr. Fames. " They found," 

 writes Mr. Fames, " a hare on Cotley Farm and killed 

 her at Wellington Monument, which is over twelve 

 miles as the crow flies." Mr. Fames suggests that 

 this is a record run with a hare. I, for one, am not 

 disinclined to agree with him. More than twelve 

 miles as the crow flies is, in truth, an extraordinary 

 run with a hare. A glance at a map of Somerset- 



