302 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



" On Jan. 31 (Friday), 1896, met at Shirley Holmes 

 Station, 11 o'clock, a by-day. A cold, cloudy day, 

 wind N.W. very slight. Immediately we began draw- 

 ing just above Shirley Holmes, hounds began to puzzle 

 out a line, but we never got on terms with our hare, 

 and a road beat us. Time i hr. Found No. 2 at Marl- 

 pit Oak and had 30 mins. very fast by Set Thorns, 

 Hincheslea, to Sway, where I think a man with a long 

 dog accounted for our hare. 



" The hunt of the day was yet to come ; we found 

 a hare at 3-30 p.m. at Boldre Grange, in a fallow field ; 

 they ran fast to Batramsley Cross Roads, bearing 

 left-handed through Mead End and Rope Hill, and 

 back to St. Austins to Boldre Grange, thro' the wood, 

 and drove her out the bottom end of the covert. They 

 swam the Lymington River below Heywood Mill, 

 and scuttled best pace by Boldre Church ; I held 

 them forward with a long cast up the road, until they 

 hit it off at a gateway, and had to run but slowly 

 over sheep-stained ground. In Sheffield Copse we 

 fresh found her, and on the Forest scent began to 

 improve ; bearing left-handed they hunted beauti- 

 fully by Greenmore, and so to Stockley Cottage ; 

 our hare had now run the road (Beaulieu and Brocken- 

 hurst), but Resolute, Stella, Minstrel, Dauntless and 

 Coquette revelled in the enjoyment of an undeniable 

 scent, as they hunted it down the road for over a mile. 

 When nearly opposite the head of Hatchet Pond, 

 Gaston's reassuring chime led us over the moor once 

 more ; it was now almost dark, and by the time we 

 were running round the head of Hatchet Pond it was 

 dark ; but they were not to be denied ; they ran with 

 increasing music, or was it the stillness of the evening 

 which made the cry so sweet. They ran yet faster as 

 they neared Blackwater bog ; I thought I saw her 



