288 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



seldom keeps far before the hounds, and, if I may use the 

 term, depends more on her intellect than speed to escape them 

 until really hard pressed at the last. There is a fashion now to 

 get very fast hounds, and clapping them on the back of their 

 game as soon as she is found, so press her, as it is said, to drive 

 her out of her country, and make her run straight, when she is 

 generally run into and killed at the end of twenty or five and 

 twenty minutes, when you may hear men congratulating them- 

 selves on the capital spin they have had. With all due defer- 

 ence, I submit that this is not hare-hunting at all, but simply a 

 bad imitation of fox-hunting, stag, drag, or anything else that 

 you like — in fact, a slow kind of coursing, in which the odds 

 are all on one side ; and had not the hare oftentimes a strong 

 ally in the impetuosity of those who follow the hounds, and 

 generally drive them over the line too far for it to be recovered, 

 she would have a very poor chance indeed. Men may call it 

 sport, the same as they call shooting pigeons from a trap sport, 

 or standing at a warm corner with a couple of loaders behind 

 them at a battue ; but, in reality, it is neither more nor less than 

 a burlesque. No animal can be said to be hunted fairly and 

 well unless it has fuU scope given to display all its powers for 

 self-preservation ; and in seeing those pitted against the nose of 

 the hound and the skill of the huntsman lies the real pleasure 

 of all hunting, and more especially of hare-hunting. There are 

 few things more beautiful than this to the man fond of hounds, 

 and the gourmand would as soon think of bolting a choice 

 morsel before he could detect the flavour, as he would of inter- 

 fering with it by an injudicious cast or hoUoa. With a fair 

 scent, and a good pack of hounds, there is very little fear of 

 the hare running them out of scent, and, unless when entering 

 puppies or blood is very much needed, harriers should never be 

 interfered with, unless the huntsman has reason to suspect that 

 they are running heel — a fault which, when left entirely to them- 

 selves, they are apt to fall into. 



The fox must be killed handsomely — raced into, as it were — to 



