SPORT WITH BASSET HOUNDS 305 



before. It is not surprising, bearing this precedent 

 in mind, that Masters of basset hounds or beagles, 

 who have hitherto had small experience of hunting 

 hare, or of the management of hounds, should find 

 themselves unable to show sport or obtain blood as 

 often as they could wish. There is no royal road to 

 hunting ; a man can only learn the business by long 

 and sometimes rather painful experience, and by 

 constant application and a steady determination to 

 master the mysteries of a most difficult yet absorbing 

 form of sport, at any cost of time and trouble. Just 

 before I wrote this chapter, a gentleman sent to 

 the Field the following letter, which, it seems to 

 me, illustrates very well the points I have been 

 discussing : 



" Sir, — I have this season been hunting a small 

 pack of basset hounds, and although we have had 

 some excellent runs, and the hounds when on a good 

 scent are absolutely impossible to stay with, our 

 number of kills has been very small. I do not know 

 much about beagles, but have one-and-a-half couple, 

 which I hunt with the basset hounds, and they (the 

 beagles) are not any faster than the bassets, and 

 certainly do not stay as well. I see, however, every 

 week in the papers accounts of kills by beagles in 

 England, and I cannot understand why they should 

 get into their hare so much oftener than we do. Is 

 there very much difference in the English and Irish 

 hares, for, if so, perhaps this would account for it ? 

 Perhaps some of your readers, who are interested in 

 foot-hunting, would be good enough to throw some 

 light on the subject. I may add that the country I 

 hunt in is mostly pasture, with very large fields and 

 fences."* 



* The Field, Feb. 14, 1903, p, 234, 



u 



