''the meeey harriers." 35 



him up. To slay the fox is legitimate. He 

 kills other creatures, and must stand his chance 

 of being killed himself; and you know that he 

 will in all probability make a good fight for his 

 life. The timid hare is another sort of animal 

 altogether, and preparations for her capture by 

 a pack of harriers always appear to me excessive. 

 The end does not justify the means ; and the 

 piteous cry of a hare when her enemies are upon 

 her is not a thing to be dwelt upon. 



Men keep harriers for different reasons — to 

 promote the interests of sport generally, to 

 promote the amusements of their neighbours, 

 to promote themselves ; and it was the latter 

 reason which induced my acquaintance, Cobb — 

 he might not like me to take the liberty of 

 calling myself his friend — to start a pack. 



Cobb wanted to get into the House of 

 Commons. He was rich ; he would have been 

 agreeable if he had only known the way. Since 

 he had left London and settled in Downshire 

 he had done everything he could to please 

 everybody, whereby, it is almost needless to 

 say, he had mortally and eternally offended 

 several people. He had subscribed to every- 

 thing, and had got up new subscriptions himself 

 for the sake of subscribing. He had even suug 

 at the local penny readings — perhaps it was 



