THE STAC HOUND 133 



esperance qui lueiit si bien qii'on la croit toiijours,' be ran 

 himself out cbasing swallows. 



To a certain extent the Queen's Hounds have to bunt 

 their deer in the same spirit. It is true that Mr. Assbeton 

 Smith declared that blood was not a necessity to finely 

 bred bounds. He cited, in proof of this, a week of most 

 extraordinary sport to which his hounds once treated 

 him, after they had been out for nine days in succession 

 without blood. Besides, I quite admit that a bulky havier 

 and a sound swallow are not comparable pursuits. After 

 coursing him in view, Khetoric and Khapsody have the 

 constant satisfaction of running up to striking distance of 

 their old ally and baying respectful defiance at him. 

 Honours, so far, are quite easy. But now the deer and his 

 safety and comfort become everybody's business. Their 

 part in the transaction is only acknowledged by loud and 

 threatening rates of the whips, or, w^orse still, by the stinging 

 thong of some well-intentioned amateur saviour of venison 

 in distress. This must be galling and disagreeable. I 

 should have been sadly sorry — so would every member of my 

 field — to see a deer hurt by a hound. Yet I could not but 

 be a little sorry too sometimes for the hounds, and regret 

 the ungracious rebuffs which had to be administered to 

 these faithful subjects of the Queen. 



The average stag-hunter no doubt admits that the 

 hounds are necessaries. He would not like not to find 

 them at the meet, and during the pursuit they are a sort of 

 legal tender that he is really having a day's hunting ; but 

 here his interest in them ceases, and I can quite understand 

 his point of view. Even fox-hunters settled down in hunt- 

 ing quarters to all the rigour of the game will notice fifty 

 things about horses, bits and bridles, boots and breeches, 

 habits and pretty faces, for one thing they w411 notice 

 about the hounds. In every hunt of course tbere are 



