SOME NOTABLE RUNS 243 



sport with foxhounds, and I admire that sport as 

 much as any man, but I honestly beheve that at the 

 present time and in the present state of fox-hunting, 

 the harrier man gets more sport and better value for 

 his time and money than does the fox-hunter. I 

 don't say this for a moment with the view of making 

 hare-hunting more popular. Heaven forbid ! I, and 

 all other hare-hunters must, I am convinced, pray that 

 the sport may go on and prosper under its present 

 quiet and placid conditions. If it becomes popular, 

 as has fox-hunting, it will be ruined. Its very strength 

 and its very pleasures lie in the fact that it is pursued 

 chiefly upon quiet country sides, in the old-fashioned 

 manner, and with small fields. 



Some harriers are, individually, extremely keen on 

 foxes if they come across them, and as a rule most 

 packs, collectively, will, once they get on the line of 

 that animal, hunt him with great fire and vigour. 

 Some hounds will, on the contrary, never look at the 

 drag of a fox, and seem to dislike it instinctively. 

 Some, again, will hunt readily either hare or fox. Mr. 

 Doyle, of the Crickhowell Harriers, sends me a curious 

 incident in connection with his pack. They were 

 hunting (on foot), by arrangement, in Monmouthshire, 

 just after frost, and were sent to draw a certain fox- 

 covert which the Monmouthshire Hunt had never 

 drawn that season. " As might have been expected," 

 he continues, " we found a fox there. They drove 

 him straight for about six miles, then swung round to 

 the right for about two more, and then ran into him, 

 no one up. I only learnt long after how it ended from 

 a casual passer-by, who saw the kill from his gig. We 

 utterly failed to find the hounds, and went home with 

 a few which had been tailed off and straggled back. 

 Next day my whip found the hounds at a homestead. 



