298 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



Still will the table thank their useful care, 

 SiTved with the fi'equent banquet of the hare; 

 They snuff her footsteps on the scented mead, 

 Tiiey thread her mazes to her secret bed. 



If we allow that there is either sense or reason in this sug- 

 gestion, we come at once, I think, on the ancestors of the rough- 

 haired harriers which are to the present day to be seen in Wales 

 and other mountainous districts, of which Nimrod said, " By 

 their fine noses and perseverance they would prove a match for 

 anything," and which really did for centuries hunt all kinds of 

 game, as continental packs do, I believe, at the present time, as 

 well as some in our own tight little island. Very probably also 

 from them came the otter-hound, as well as perhaps some of 

 the rough- coated continental hounds, in which a great resem- 

 blance to the red Welsh harrier can be seen ; but with them I 

 have nothing to do, and it boots little to inquire at this time 

 whether they are descended from these or the Segusians of the 

 Celts. Probably they and our own rough hounds owe some- 

 thing to each race. 



I now come to the most common harrier of the present day — 

 one of the busiest, hard-working, and most beautiful little 

 animals it is possible to conceive ; and in the best packs I 

 think I may give them a range of from fifteen to eighteen 

 inches in height. When well and highly bred, their heads are 

 very fine, with a softer and less varmint expression than the 

 fox-hound, but very much like them in other respects. The 

 ear is less large and the throat cleaner than in the blue mottles, 

 and, in fact, the frame approaches very nearly to the fox-hound 

 model ; but I have been told by many masters of harriers that 

 they find it almost impossible with pure harrier blood to obtain 

 the straight fore-leg and fine foot, by which fox-hound breeders 

 set so much store. This may probably be on account of limited 

 walks, and consequent want of choice in the young ones put 

 forward, as every one who knows anything of kennel manage- 

 ment is aware how exceedingly few fox-hounds out of a limited 



