SOME NOTABLE RUNS 241 



and held out her apron, into which the hare straight- 

 way ran and was captured.* 



Fox-hunters of the present day constantly complain, 

 and with great show of reason, of short running foxes, 

 and the poor hunts but too often obtained. It is 

 certainly quite the exception in these later years to 

 experience a really great run with a pack of foxhounds, 

 even in the best of our hunting countries. Various 

 causes are assigned for this state of things. Some 

 allege that cubs are too much left alone ; others, that 

 the young foxes are slain in the cubbing season in too 

 great numbers ; while others, again, hold that we 

 breed our hounds too much for speed and pay too 

 little attention to the quality of our foxes. Others, 

 again, assert, and I think with a good deal of reason, 

 that in many countries there are far too many foxes, 

 and that constant changing robs the pack of many 

 a good run which might otherwise have been obtained. 

 Again, the enormous fields, of both horse and foot 

 people, have undoubtedly a very deterrent effect on 

 the quality of sport shown. At meets in fashionable 

 countries foxes have but too often small chance of 

 getting away with a fair start, and are so headed and 

 mobbed that they can yield no sport and die an un- 

 worthy death. Happily, one does not find the same 

 state of things obtaining with harrier packs. The 

 sport, conducted usually in a quiet and enjoyable 

 manner, with small fields and comparatively few foot 

 people, escapes, thank heaven, the unhappy popu- 

 larity of fox-hunting, and flourishes as successfully 

 as it did two hundred years ago, when Sir Roger de 

 Coverley and his fellow squires rode out with their 

 Southern hounds. 



To me it seems — and I have followed very closely 

 * "Annals of Sporting," 1823. Vol. iv. p. 233. 



Q 



