HARE-HUNTING. 287 



said horse a canter by way of getting him into condition. 

 Personally I should as soon take the rojal huck-honnds to 

 catch a rabbit as go hare-himting in such form, and they would 

 be just about as much in place as a man who comes out to ride 

 hard with harriers. It is a chase not perhaps suited for en- 

 thusiastic men in the prime of life, for, as Talleyrand said of 

 diplomacy, above all things there must be no zeal. The hunts- 

 man has to do little more than act the part of a spectator, and 

 his field should think no more of having any hand in the 

 business transacted for their amusement than they would of 

 joining in chorus at the opera. I conceive that a man may be 

 a very great singer, and yet content to sit still and hold his 

 tongue while a Patti or Nilson is singing. By the same rule 

 Jem Mason himself, or the best man who ever crossed a country, 

 should be content to drop his mantle for the time that he is out 

 with harriers. A very little quiet riding will, in nine cases out 

 of ten, show him all that there is to be seen of the hunting, 

 and, when that is done, his mission is accomplished. The hare 

 does not run far away, except in rare instances, hence the chase 

 of her is by no means calculated to confer distinction either on 

 man or horse, in a riding sense, although both one and the 

 other may use it as an admirable school wherein to acquire the 

 art of going to hounds when judiciously used. The hare gene- 

 rally depends for her safety on the marvellous instinct with 

 which nature has endowed her, for what is technically called 

 making work (that is, traversing and retraversing the ground) to 

 puzzle the hounds. This work the true harrier will, when 

 given time, puzzle out with almost unerring instinct, and it is 

 seeing this done which constitutes the real beauty of hare- 

 hunting. Pishing has been called the contemplative man's 

 recreation ; there can be no doubt but hare-hunting is the sport 

 for the contemplative hunting man. A certain amount of ex- 

 citement attends the chase of the stag and fox, because these 

 are animals that will keep going, and time lost with them is 

 seldom regained. With the hare it is altogether different; she 



