CHAPTER XI 

 TWO HARE-HUNTS 



A South Down homestead An old-fashioned pack Four hares afoot 

 A check Across the golf links Slow hunting- Away over the downs 

 A straight-necked hare The kill A record hunt A Marsh Meet 

 The hare-finder A good run Towards the sea The Crumbles 

 The death A second hunt Fifty minutes and a kill Homeward. 



A BRIGHT, sharp-set morning in February, with a 

 keen northerly wind. There is the merest powder- 

 ing of snow on the downs, which is not, perhaps, of 

 the happiest augury for hunting. Still, I have known 

 hounds run like wildfire in frost and snow ; one of 

 the charms and the mysteries of scent is that you never 

 know what fortune may have in store for you. We 

 meet this morning at a comfortable South Down home- 

 stead Meads Farm within half a mile of Beachy 

 Head. At eleven o'clock the Hailsham Harriers, a 

 famous old Sussex foot-pack, appear on the scene, 

 seventeen couple of them, all, as is their wont, in ex- 

 cellent heart and fettle. The Hailsham have a strong 

 blend of the old Southern hound blood. They average 

 about nineteen inches, and are notable for their first- 

 rate scenting powers, long ears, deep voices, and a 

 strain of that excellent but now rare blue-mottle mark- 

 ing, which shows prominently throughout the pack. 



Hares, happily, are plentiful in all this countryside, 

 and hounds have been drawing no more than three 

 or four minutes when up jumps puss from the plough 

 and speeds away behind us. The pack at once gets 



84 



