RUNS WITH FOOT-HARRIERS 271 



But there is little time just now to think of wild- 

 fowling. A glance or two at the pleasant sea-scape, 

 with Beachy Head jutting boldly in front of us, and 

 our eyes and ears are once more riveted on hounds 

 and the line of chase. Captain and the leaders of the 

 pack check for a moment at a gate, and then, plunging 

 into the grass pasture again, tell us with a grand chorus 

 of glad voices that the line is right and that scent is 

 good again. At the same instant a far away holloa 

 or two in front tell that the hare is running straight 

 for Wall's End, the little sea-shore off-shoot of Pevensey 

 village. 



Scent is burning again, and, refreshed and heartened, 

 the pack, now gathered well together, are running at 

 a great pace, and with a grand cry. It is inspiring, 

 indeed. Surely we are going to kill this stout hare, 

 which has now been running before us for full three 

 quarters of an hour ! We toil on and are nearing 

 Wall's End, when, suddenly, the line of the hare 

 breaks off to the right. It looks as if she meant going 

 back for the very field from which we first put her 

 up ; but no ! for some reason, either because she was 

 headed, or because she merely wished to baulk her 

 pursuers, she has evidently doubled. It is a tick- 

 lish moment ; but hounds, left judiciously to them- 

 selves, hit off the line. They are not running heel as 

 some supposed. The hare has turned short back, 

 run a foil close upon her old line, and, as hounds tell 

 us by their patient and more careful work, has evi- 

 dently dodged about here considerably before going 

 away again. It looks like a tiring hare, and our 

 spirits rise proportionately. They puzzle it out round 

 two or three pastures, along dyke sides, close to the 

 water, in and out, up and down, this way and that, 

 untU at length aU is clear, and the pack is away again. 



