138 SPEED OF THE HARRIER. 



fox with them, you spoil them. Hounds can- 

 not be perfect unless used to one scent, and one 

 style of hunting. Harriers run fox in so differ- 

 ent a style from hare, that it is of great disser- 

 vice to them when they return to hare again. 

 It makes them wild, and teaches them to skirt. 

 The high scent which a fox leaves, the straight- 

 ness of his running, the eagerness of the pursuit, 

 and the noise that generally accompanies it, all 

 contribute to spoil a harrier. 



I hope you agree with me, that it is a fault 

 in a pack of harriers to go too fast ; for a hare 

 is a little timorous animal, that we cannot help 

 feeling some compassion for, at the very time 

 when we are pursuing her destruction : we 

 should give scope to all her little tricks, nor 

 kill her foully, and overmatched.* Instinct in- 

 structs her to make a good defence, when not 

 unfairly treated ; and I will venture to say, 



* The critic terms this, "a mode of destruction some- 

 what beyond brutal," (vide Monthly Review). I shall 

 not pretend to justify that conventional cruelty, which 

 seems so universally to prevail ; neither will I ask the gen- 

 tleman, who is so severe on me, why he feeds the lamb, 

 and afterwards cuts his throat ; I mean only to consider 

 cruelty under the narrow limits which concern hunting. 

 If it may be defined to be a pleasure which results from 

 giving pain ; then, certainly, a sportsman is much less cruel 

 than he is thought. 



