114 HARE-HUNTING 



Strength or Champion ground [champaign = 

 open country] but strongest Coverts," and 

 '* when he can no longer stand up before the 

 Hounds, he then taketh Earth, and then must 

 he be dicjored out." From these two sen- 

 tences it is obvious that harriers, accustomed 

 as they were to find their game in the open 

 country, had not developed the habit of 

 drawing thick coverts, and were probably 

 poor hands at bustling a fox in a whin cover 

 and at forcing him out. Indeed, we find 

 that they were not always good at finding 

 a hare in the open, for it was a custom to 

 employ " hare-finders," and Peter Beckford, 

 though he admits paying two guineas in 

 a single day to the men who were thus 

 employed, laments the demoralisation of 

 hounds, consequent on the custom making 



