BEASTS OF THE CHASE.— THE HARE. 75 



fox as eagerly as hare, and though in districts where outlyers 

 are frequent, an occasional dart after a brush is inevitable, there 

 rarely results much mischief or a tragic finish ; when the 

 hounds are really small, they can usually be stopped before 

 a holding covert is reached, and on the whole do more good 

 than harm by moving the ' thief of the world ' out of the odd 

 holes and corners he is so fond of frequenting, and where he is 

 seldom discovered by his natural enemies. But let a pack of 

 2 1 -inch pure bred foxhounds get a fair start on a good scenting 

 day at a fox out of a hedgerow ; they are as likely as not — and 

 why not ? — to rip him up in five-and-twenty minutes, let the 

 green-coated master and his retainers ride never so vahantly ; 

 then when the first flush of triumph is over, there is shame 

 and remorse, and when the story gets wind the M.F.H. is 

 indignant, the owners of coverts are annoyed, and the sub- 

 scribers wax hot in their wrath, while all unite in cursing the 

 currant-jelly dogs. We wonder if any of our readers ever 

 heard the late George Payne give an account of how with his 

 harriers (for that Ulysses of sport had in his time kept harriers) 

 he once found a fox in a remote Pytchley withy bed, and ' killed 

 him on the top of the main earth at Arthingworth.' 



Shame and remorse we may be sure he felt none, but even 

 in the paroxysms of laughter occasioned by his inimitable 

 description of how he ' cut him into coUops with a penknife, to 

 tempt the confounded hounds who wouldn't eat him,' we re- 

 member thinking that no Ofie but G. P. ' aurait su se tirer de 

 I'embarras.' 



Secondly, dwarf foxhounds have too much dash^ and when 

 the hare begins to double, and execute her manifold manoeuvres, 

 they keep over-running the scent, and casting themselves for- 

 ward, instead of trying back, which seems to be the natural 

 instinct of hounds descended from some generations of hare- 

 hunting forefathers. 



The best plan, therefore, for a beginner is to purchase a 

 draft of old dogs and bitches, from one or more established 

 harrier kennels — if he has any friends in the line so much the 



