286 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



are kept up to the main body of the pack. With 

 harriers, hfting hounds to the holloa is always to be 

 discouraged ; but with beagles a little licence may 

 be allowed in this respect, unless, of course, they are 

 running the line hard. And especially in long, slow, 

 dragging runs, where scent is poor, and there is a 

 chance of the pack being run out of it altogether, 

 beagles may be now and again lifted to a holloa, if it 

 is known to be a sure and a good one. When lifted 

 they should be trotted briskly forward, and no time 

 should be lost. 



Some people have advocated the practice of having 

 a mounted man with a pack of beagles, not to hunt 

 them, but to hang about on the outskirts of the chase, 

 watch the line of the hare, and head her away from 

 any coverts or forbidden preserves, to which she may 

 be making. Personally, I do not hold with such 

 a practice. I believe it tends, more usually than 

 not, to the mounted man getting with the hounds 

 and — unconsciously, if you like — trying to manage 

 them himself. Mounted people with foot-packs 

 almost always upset harriers or beagles, and should 

 be severely discouraged. Of course, a friendly farmer, 

 riding over his own fields to show the huntsman a 

 hare, is on a different footing. He is the last person 

 to spoil sport ; he understands the rules of the game ; 

 and without him hunting could not exist. But in my 

 experience of beagles a mounted man is quite un- 

 neccessary, and, in fact, undesirable. It is possible 

 that in the case of sixteen-inch beagles, which are 

 practically almost as big as harriers, instances may 

 now and again occur in which the pack gets clean away 

 from its field and runs into a woodland, where pheas- 

 ants are preserved, or into a fox-covert, which ought 

 not to be disturbed. In such a case, a mounted man 



