292 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



much work, so that you really get a gallop, and, from the 

 nature of the country, can see all that goes forward. In Ireland 

 this sport is much more appreciated than in England, and the 

 Irish hares are said to be stronger, and run straighter than ours. 

 Kever having hunted in the " gem of the sea," I can offer 

 no opinion on the subject, but I know that some packs hunt a 

 line grass country divided by walls, and that the hounds are as 

 carefully bred from the best fox-hound strains, as the Quorn, or 

 Eelvoir themselves. Such were (I suppose still are) the 

 Killultagh, where the men turned out in scarlet, and the whole 

 thing was done in first-rate style. In conclusion, let me advise 

 all my readers whose lot may be cast in a good hare-hunting 

 country — that is to say, a light, open one — to let no pride or pre- 

 judice keep them from enjoying the sport ; and if they will only 

 consider that they go out to see hunting (or should do so), and 

 not to ride over the hounds or each other, that they are hunting 

 a timid but exceedingly cunning quarry, and that the business 

 of the hounds is to unravel her devices rather than race her to 

 death before she can make them, they will, I think, own (es- 

 pecially if they have been heretofore riding about all day long 

 in big woodlands, with deep, sloughy ridings) that they have 

 found a new pleasure. 



Hunting, like many other things, depends a great deal on 

 the point of view from which we look at it ; and the rock on 

 which so many men split is looking at every kind of chase in 

 the same light, viz., as the means of giving people the chance 

 to gallop and jump, instead of attempting to fathom the 

 mysteries and peculiarities of each, running down some because 

 they do not display characteristics which, from their nature, it 

 is impossible that they should have. I once heard a man say 

 that a pack of fox-hounds which had worked out a cold scent 

 " hunted like beagles." " Then that is just how they should not 

 hunt," rejoined an M.F.H., who knew as much of, if not a 

 little more about hunting than any man in England. Would 

 the shooter like to see his clumbers range like high-bred setters. 



