VARIETIES OF THE DOG. 



71 



speedy as he may, should never be used for the fox ; but every dog should 

 be strictly confined to his own game. 



Mr. Beckford, in his Thoughts upon Hunting, gives an account, 

 unrivalled, of the chace of the hare and fox. Many sporting writers have 

 endeavoured to tread in his steps ; but they have failed in giving that 

 graphic account of the pleasures of the field which Mr. Beckford's essay 

 contains. 



He says that the sportsman should never have more than 20 couple 

 in the field, because it would be exceedingly difficult to get a greater 

 number to run together, and a pack of harriers cannot be complete if they 

 do not. A hound that runs too fast for the rest, or that lags behind them, 

 should be immediately discarded. His hounds were between the large 

 slow-hunting harrier and the fox-beagle. He endeavoured to get as 

 much bone and strength in as little compass as possible. He acknow- 

 ledges that this was a difficult undertaking ; but he had, at last, the 

 pleasure to see them handsome, small, yet bony, running well together, 

 and fast enough, with all the alacrity that could be desired, and hunting 

 the coldest scent. 



THE HARRIEK. 



He anticipates the present improvement of the chace when he lays it 

 down as a rule never to be departed from, that hounds of every kind 

 should be kept to their own game. They should have one scent, and one 

 style of hunting. Harriers will run a fox in so different a style from the 

 pursuit of a hare, that they will not readily, and often will not at all, 



