246 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



year. When on the moorland at Sparklow he saw 

 two hares sitting. They got up and hounds were 

 running them in view through a narrow way, with a 

 tvall on either side. A third hare jumped up, as hounds 

 went over her, and ran right through the middle of 

 the pack for thirty or forty yards, passing each hound 

 before he saw her. 



I once witnessed a very curious incident while out 

 with the Foxbush Harriers. It was a good many years 

 ago, when Mr. Kemp himself always hunted them on 

 foot. We found a hare, and had a capital run with 

 her and lost. Almost immediately we got on to a 

 fresh hare and enjoyed a real good run with her also. 

 Presently she began to tire, and hounds closed up 

 rapidly and were running hard for blood. We had 

 by this time returned to the place where we first found 

 her. Just at this moment some of the hounds picked 

 up the first hare, which was by this time so stiff that 

 she was scarcely able to move. We had at this mo- 

 ment then the strange gratification of running into 

 both our hunted hares simultaneously. They were 

 actually killed within a few yards of one another. 



I have already made some mention of the frequency 

 with which hares when hunted take to rivers and 

 streams. I came recently on some old accounts of 

 sport with the Blackmoor Vale Harriers (Dorset) in 

 the year 1832, in which some extraordinary feats of 

 swimming are recorded. On February 24 these harriers 

 met on Lydlinch Common, and, finding a jack hare 

 near Bagbere, had a great run with him. He swam 

 the river L3^ddon four times, and finding the pack still 

 pressing him unpleasantly crossed yet a fifth time. 

 Thence he ran to Stourton Caundle, where he swam 

 the Caundle stream, and yet once more crossing the 

 river was killed on the border of Lydlinch Common, 



