84 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



certain that good runs do occur in all countries, and also that 

 men enjoy them. 



I contend that this can be said of no other sport, although it 

 has been averred that hare-hunting comes more within the 

 reach of the many than fox-hunting. In my opinion, hare- 

 hunting depends far more on the country where it is pursued 

 than the chase of the fox. First, hares in enclosed countries 

 run short and badly, and, secondly, men, as a rule, do not care 

 to keep riding round and round in the same track all day, over 

 strong fences, and find that those who have been standing still, 

 or trotted slowly about, have had the best of them. In such 

 countries the chase of the hare must descend to hunting with 

 foot-beagles. Again, much wood is a certain stoppage to hare- 

 hunting, or at least any enjoyment in it ; and, although I do not 

 contend that it is an improvement to fox-hunting, I can say that 

 it by no means stops it altogether ; and, from the immense woods 

 of Devon, Hants, and other countries, I have myself seen many 

 a good run. Indeed, it is a notorious fact that woodland 

 foxes, when you can once get them to go, run stouter than 

 those bred in the open. I shall show that hare-hunting, 

 worth seeing, is only to be obtained in a certain description of 

 country ; wild stag-hunting, alas ! only in one ; but, save in 

 the most mountainous districts, there is scarcely a place in 

 England where a man cannot get fox-hunting from his own 

 stable door, and that with the prospect of having a good run. 

 I heard an ex-master say, when asked how he liked the part 

 in which he had hunted the season before (a most unfashionable 

 country), " Oh, very well ; I got out nearly every day, and I 

 prefer quantity to quality ;" yet he had hunted a country some 

 part of which is as fine as any in England. For the man who 

 does not mind moving his household gods, fox-hunting again 

 holds out an endless variety. You may hunt on grass one week, 

 in plough country the next, and on open down land the third, 

 if so minded. Every taste can be suited in it. There are walls 

 and upland hills for such as like them — and very pleasant hunt- 



