316 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



a good-nosed liomid, he is kept for the sake of a cross. Swing- 

 ing round, they soon brought their hare once more back to the 

 village ; and it was a real treat to see the way they came over 

 a gate in their line, all in a body like steeplechase horses at the 

 first fence. We then had some very beautiful slow hunting 

 through a nursery garden, across the playground of the National 

 School, where even hard gravel and a multitude of children 

 could not choke the pack off the line. Here there was difficulty 

 in getting the gates (too high to be jumped) open to let the 

 hounds through, and this delay gave the hare a bit more law, 

 of which she took good care to avail herself. So far, those who 

 rode ' Shanks's mare' had the best of it ; but from this point the 

 tables were turned, and, stretching right away, she led them, 

 straight as a crow could fly, through the covert traversed by the 

 first hare, and out on the other side ; neither did she turn her 

 head when the open country was reached, but, holding on like 

 a fox, made over two or three miles of open to another large 

 covert, thus, of course, leaving the infantry far in the rear. 



"Thanks, however, to the superb voices of these hounds, 

 even if out of sight, they were by no means out of hearing ; 

 and though at times they could not have been less than a 

 couple of miles from them, they could note, by ear, every turn 

 as they worked out her twists and foils (for when we say 

 that the hare went straight away, it must not be supposed 

 she so far forgot her nature as to run a straight line without 

 making work, but that she never came round or turned back, as 

 hares generally do). 



'• The next covert being reached gave the runners another 

 chance to get up, and every one fancied they would change in 

 it ; but no, they stuck to the line, and having taken their hare 

 in at one side, forced her out on the other, and away again in 

 the open, soon leaving the ploughed land for meadows and 

 marshes. Here the first and only check was caused by a fresh 

 hare jumping up close before them and taking them from the 

 line ; this mistake was, however, soon rectified, and they once 



