Notes at Brighton. 141 



the cottage she turns at one of her favourite right-angles, 

 and speeds equally close to the waiting horsemen. We can 

 observe her distinctly — her frightened eyes, her appealing 

 glance, the shadings of her dark autumn coat, the deter- 

 mined laying of her ears. 



Did you. ever see a hare in full flight ? It is only when 

 she is hotly pursued that you have the- opportunity. It is a 

 very different thing from that epitaphed Tiny, whose 



" — — Diet was of wheaten bread, 

 And milk, and oats, and straw ; 

 Thistles, or lettuces instead, 

 With sand to scour his maw. " 



It is a very different thing from the lanky-legged, awk- 

 ward-looking animal that scrambles into the copse when you 

 are taking your evening cigar in the cornfield- These Down 

 hares understand well how to get over the ground and elude 

 the enemy, and they are better able to do so than the 

 covert and what is called the "homeless" variety. Our 

 Southwick puss has shot into the turnips like an arrow, the 

 excited rustics having, to their credit be it said, given strict 

 obedience to the chorus of " Keep still, boys," which arose 

 on every side. The urchins therefore drop the stones which 

 they had picked up, and every one of us — ladies no less 

 than gentlemen, children as much as adults— watches the 

 disappearing creature with shockingly hungry eyes. If we, 

 by a sudden impulse, desire her blood, so, by alike instinct, ■ 

 do the harriers. 



The leader is pushing through the turnips, and the rest of 

 the pack,- close and compact as a comet's tail, follow him. 

 In due time we pursue, not at the dashing charge of the 

 fox or stag-hunter, but with the calculation which every 

 sensible rider after hounds will exercise over stony, wet 



