liUNTING WITH FOOT-HARRIERS 261 



a most cheery, winter sport. The farmers and land- 

 owners are almost invariably staunch friends and 

 supporters of a sport which affords a great deal of 

 amusement and does them no harm. No one's 

 fences are injured, the fields are small, and the pastime 

 can be enjoyed by young and old, rich and poor, alike. 

 The intrusion of the mere vulgar ostentation of wealth, 

 too often seen nowadays, even in the hunting-field, 

 is conspicuous by its absence. In fact, the vulgar 

 nouveau riche, who is usually a self-indulgent sort of 

 person, much more devoted to motor cars than to any 

 other form of out-door exercise, can have little part 

 or lot in a hare-hunt on foot, where activity, good 

 wind, firm muscles, and clean living are essentials to 

 success if a man really means to follow hounds. Here, 

 in truth, the farmer's son is likely to be a better man 

 than the youth nurtured on money-bags. 



Besides being a most fascinating form of sport, 

 hare-hunting on foot is a first-rate training for British 

 youth. It makes them fond of the country, and renders 

 them hardy, healthy, and vigorous. Every school-boy 

 likes it, and it is a real pleasure to see in holiday time 

 the youngster out for the day with beagles or foot- 

 harriers. Besides drawing youth out of the towns, it 

 teaches them to use their eyes and to train their minds 

 to observation. To understand the run of a hare, 

 even more than that of a fox, a man must use his 

 wits, and the careless, the unobservant, and the fool 

 can never hope to become either a good harrier-man 

 or a sound fox-hunter. It is one of the misfortunes 

 of latter-day sport that, in fashionable countries, the 

 lad who goes out fox-hunting sees very little indeed 

 of the real science of the chase, and can learn little 

 of the working of hounds or the run of a fox. He 

 learns, it is true, to gallop and to jump, but in ninety 



