SPORT WITH BASSET HOUNDS 299 



" (2) The country in the New Forest is admirably 

 suited to basset hounds, being moorland or large open 

 woodland. 



" The heather on the moor is not sufficiently high 

 to stop these little hounds and invariably carries good 

 scent. The country round Lymington is chiefly plough 

 and banks. The country around Cambridge was 

 chiefly plough, and fen-land, which latter suited the 

 hounds very well, if it had not been for the dykes. 

 Deep ditches or stone walls are a terrible hindrance 

 to basset hounds. 



" (3) In the New Forest, during the months of 

 September, October, and early part of November, 

 given a scent, the hounds can bring a hare to hand 

 in 50 minutes to i hour 20 minutes. After the 

 middle of November till the end of the season, I have 

 scarcely ever hunted a hare to death in less than 2 

 hours and it has much more often been 3 or 4 hours ; 

 it is very seldom that these hounds manage to kill a 

 hare before she is so beat that you can pick her up 

 yourself. 



" They are very slow to take any advantage ; some- 

 times they would rather throw their tongues than 

 bite ; in many cases beagles or even terriers would 

 have killed a hare which has absolutely escaped from 

 the jaws of the pack, because they are so slow to grasp 

 the situation, or, more to the point, the hare. 



" (4) I do not think that our kennel management 

 differs in any degree from that of a pack of foxhounds, 

 except that our hounds have biscuit with their meal 

 during the hunting season, and that I only give 

 them the soup from the horse-flesh and none of the 

 meat ; otherwise, the kennel management is the same. 

 The floors of the lodging-houses are boarded with 

 battens, 4 inches from the cement flooring, so that no 



