264 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



after generation of sturdy squires and yeomen 

 have been reared. Its present owner has done much 

 towards the restoration of the old place, and it is now 

 in good condition, fit for sheltering folk for a hundred 

 or two of years more. The old Tudor hall is now used 

 as a billiard-room, and the table is spread with all 

 manner of good things, beef, ham, sandwiches, pies, 

 and every kind of drink, from whiskey and soda to 

 old ale and cherry brandy. Upon the snow-white 

 table-cloth great dishes of ruddy-golden apples make 

 a fine display ; they are so typically English, and they 

 contrast so pleasantly with the rich, dark panelling of 

 the great chamber. In the wide open grate bums 

 a roaring wood fire, a notable and most comfortable 

 addition to a typical picture of the country-side as 

 one likes to see it. Refreshment over, hounds are 

 unkennelled from their stable, and we proceed to 

 draw up a long, open valley between two high folds 

 in t]ie down. Half a mile from the house, suddenly 

 from among a thick crop of roots, a hare jumps up 

 right in the middle of hounds. There is the usual 

 scuffle observed on such occasions. The hare makes 

 her escape from the open jaws of twelve couples of 

 her foes as if by a miracle, and, setting her face for the 

 down-side, away she tears, one ear down the other 

 half cocked, as if to catch every tone of that terrible 

 chorus behind her. With a grand burst of melody, 

 hounds pack together and race off in pursuit. For 

 a few hundred yards it is a mere confused scurry, 

 hounds running in view, aU clamorous to get at that 

 little brown form fleeting away at such a pace in front 

 of them. In this open down country this is a thing 

 that cannot be avoided, and for that reason I, for one, 

 prefer hunting in the marshes, and upon more enclosed 

 land, to hare-hunting on the downs. However, the 



