THE HARRIER. *jiy\f 



number would be considered eligible in one of our crack 

 kennels. And any one, who has looked over packs supplied 

 principally from drafts, will bear me out when I say that good 

 legs and feet are the exception rather than the rule in them, 

 and that a hound showing them in perfection has generally a 

 grave fault in some other part. 



Though the harrier should have as near as possible the form 

 of the fox-hound, he should have a different voice ; and I would 

 undertake to tell by the ear alone, if I could hear them running, 

 a pack of fox-hounds from real harriers. Neither must he work 

 in the same dashing style, for, although I would by no means 

 allow him to dwell and puddle, he should work closer, or he 

 will go beyond the doubles of his hare, and in working them 

 out is the true beauty of the sport. He should be, in fact, a 

 little busy-body, very quick, very keen, and withal very patient 

 and fine-nosed, seldom requiring help from his huntsman, and 

 still more seldom a rate from the whipper-in. There are many 

 packs in the present day such as I have endeavoured to de- 

 scribe, but very few of them, I fancy, without some little stain 

 of fox-hound blood ; in fact, it is difficult to get hounds quick 

 and energetic enough to suit present ideas without it, except in 

 very peculiar countries. Nevertheless, by breeding back again, 

 all the harrier characteristics are kept up. 



Beckford says, — 



"The hounds I think most likely to show you sport are 

 between the large, slow-hunting harrier and the little fox- 

 beagle. The former are too dull, too heavy, and too slow ; the 

 latter too lively, too light, and too fleet. The first species, it 

 is true, have most excellent noses, and I make no doubt will 

 kill their game at last, if the day be long enough ; but, you 

 know, the clays are short in winter, and it is bad hunting in the 

 dark. The other, on the contrary, fling and dash, and are all 

 alive ; but every cold blast afi'ects them, and if your country be 

 deep and wet, it is not impossible that some of them may be 

 drowned. My hounds were a cross of both these kinds, in 



