HUNTING WITH FOOT-HARRIERS 257 



the woods. She will always remain, just as remains 

 so many a good hunting-run, a living picture in the 

 memory. 



Strange and amusing incidents happen sometimes 

 to the foot-hunter as he follows hounds. Only a few 

 days since, with the Hailsham Harriers, a man jumping 

 a broad dyke saw that he was alighting directly on 

 top of a hare — not the hunted one — which happened 

 to be lying on the bank. He managed to avoid her 

 as he touched the ground, and the hare was so startled 

 and so terrified that she plumped straightway into 

 the dyke and, floundering across in the most ludicrous 

 fashion, emerged like a drowned rat on the other side, 

 and raced away in a very panic of fright. The scene 

 was a most ludicrous one. It is a real pleasure to 

 jump a good dyke, but these obstacles to the hare- 

 hunter afford infinite grief sometimes. I saw this 

 winter an enthusiastic photographer, rushing to take 

 a snap-shot of hounds and hunters as they passed by, 

 make a stride for a plank which bridged the dyke. 

 He omitted to remember that there had been a 

 sharp white frost during the night and that the plank 

 was doubly treacherous. His foot slipped and he 

 plunged bodily into the dyke. Happily, he was an 

 enthusiast in his work and, holding his camera above 

 his head, he managed to preserve his precious cargo 

 of plates. If it had been otherwise, this volume might 

 have been shorn of some of its illustrations. The 

 enthusiast stuck to his work pluckily for the rest of 

 the day, in spite of the fact that he was practically 

 wet through. 



Shepherds on the Sussex marshes get from one part 

 of the broad pastures to the other by means of 

 occasional planks, usually very narrow and slippery, 

 which span the wide and muddy " diks," as they are 



R 



