T\ 
LAND & WATER 
February S, 1917 
Boar Hunting in France 
By GeoftVey Ransomc 
^Ok many \imi> \>d-i iiic wild Imi.iis, which breed 
in jirofnsioii in tlio forests in sonu" parts of iM'ancc, 
F;, 
havo cuuscd scrions damago to the adjoininf,' 
crops and f,'ardons. In peace time the farmers 
;ind peasants manage to keep them within reasonable 
bonnds, but dnring two years of war, \\lH-n all the men 
of miHtars' ago have cither been called to the colours or 
mobilised for munition work, the pigs have been left 
comparati\('l\- (piiet and ha\'e, therefore, enormously 
increased in ntnnbers. f'or this reason battues are 
jK'riodicai!\ arranged by the landed proprietors and 
others with a new to keeping them down. 
While o\-er in falvados on munition business recently, 
I had the goo(l forttme of participating in the opening 
battue of the season, while waiting for a boat to take 
me back to iMigland. My host, who is a most ardent 
sportsman nnd an excellent shot, is the chief organiser 
of the battues in his district. He keeps for the purpose 
a pack of hounds, some being pure-bred English fox- 
liounds, which " go in " at the boars, while the others 
are a cross with the foxhound, named batards Poiicvins 
:ind Vciidkn. The latter are bred more for speed and 
much nscrnblc a foxhotmd, but stand a few inches higher, 
are less strongly built and not quite so ]>lucky. To the 
kennel are also attached a few hoimds, chosen for nose 
and intelligence and known as limicrs or detectives ; 
these arc kcjjt on leads and are utilised for locating the 
(|uarry. On the day in (piestion, however, pigs were so 
luunerous that these were hardly needed. 
It was a frosty morning when we motored out about 
eight miles to a little village not far from Trouvillc, 
where the kennels were situated, and at which the meet 
took place. Tiiore we found most of the chasseurs 
already assembled. We picked up the pack, consisting of 
seven foxhounds and nine hi'itards with two limiers. 
These were in the care of the piqiicurs, sinew3% active 
men, over military age, but game for anything. Another 
thkee miles brought us to the site of operations, a' forest 
composed mainly of young oaks, with here and there a 
giant, and with a rather dense undergrowth of hazel, 
young beech, holly and bramble, with narrow rides cut 
at very infrequent intervals. The guns, about eighteen 
all told, were chiefly men of over fifty years who, for 
the most part, used a 12-bore shot gun, with ball in one 
or both barrels, although some preferred' to use slugs in 
at least one barrel. The shooting is almost invariably 
close, as in thesi' woods you seldom can see to get a shot 
at anythin.tj further than about thirty yards. 
After a walk of about half a mile down a deer track, 
I was courteously allotted what was supposed to be one 
f)f the best jiositions, in a clearing about 30 feet in dia- 
meter. Owing, however, to the fortunes of the chase, 
alas ! I never got a shot. I asked the elderly sportsman 
who posted me — with .strict injmictions to shoot nothing 
but pig and foxes — from which direction the hounds 
would be working, as. I had rather lost my bearings. 
He waved his arms in a comprehensive gesture which 
embraced the imi\'cr»c, and he was right ! He told mc 
that nil I had to do, was to " turn round towards the 
direction in which they arc giving tongue." I obeyed, 
with the result that during the next hour I fullilled 
the fimction of a teetotum. 
What actually hap]>encd was that, directly hounds 
were loosed they split up into four or five packs, each 
following a different pig, and shots were soon heard. 
For the next three hours I waited, while an occasional 
deer or rabbit would come and look at me and vanish 
(juickly in the imdergrowth. Hounds could be heard at 
wo»k all over the wood and sometimes a shot, and from 
time to time a hound, off the scent, would race past mc 
or stop a second for a friendly greeting : but still no pig. 
But. ves ! at last my chance has come ! There is a faint 
crackling in the undergrowth and something dark is 
seen dimly, moving in the bushes ; simultaneously with 
my gun going up, however, the " pig " coughed and spat : 
it Was OTvly the black leggings of one of our company. 
He greeted me with a beaming smile and, when I enquired 
why he had left his allotted place, replied that he was 
'y\r-\. Jutving a look round. I >ul)sequently •learned that 
it was qiute usual for anyone who became at all bored, to 
leave his beat and wander about on- his own account 
in the thick woodlands— a rather risky proceeding. 
The Bag 
After a time I heard shouts and horns being blown 
some waj' off, so wended my way thither. When I 
joined the master I found that the result so far was three 
pigs, one a very fine old tusker weighing 295 lbs., the 
others being somewhat smaller, while a fourth, whicli 
had been badly wounded, was gathered in the next day ; 
not perhaps a large bag, but, considering the absence of 
beaters and the wildness of the hounds, not unsatis- 
factory. After helping to drag one of the slain to a ride 
some fjoo yards off (no light task, owing to the thick 
bushes) I joined two others with a limicr in tracking a 
wounded boar for some time, when, as we were about 
three miles from the car, and it was rapidly growing 
dark, I left them. Ten minutes later several shots rang 
out and I heard subsequently that they had run into a 
batch of about twelve or fifteen three-quarter grown pig, 
but had missed every time owing to the darkness. 
On regaining the road I found my friend the- master 
and the piqueurs, who had collected all the hounds 
except six ; later on four more turned up more or less 
mauled, and next day the remaining two were discovered, 
one \erv badly gashed in several places. 
While waiting for other members of our party to turn 
up, I listened to some incidents of the day. The juvenile 
chauffeur, who had himself bagged a pig of respectable 
size, recounted how he had been bowled over, but not 
hurt, by an old sow ; the sow, it appeared, was " larger 
than a donkey and roared even as a bull of Basan." 
Tire chauffeur also gave us lifelike imitations of the noises 
made by each member of the sow's family. It was in 
this mix up that one of the hounds received a nasty bite. 
Then there were, of course, those among the guns who 
had " mortally wounded " giants of the forest, which 
could not be found. " You have only to go into the 
wood, when you will assuredly find hira dead," and so 
forth. Again, the hounds having brought to bay a 
wounded boar, in a stream, one of the piqueurs. being 
unable to shoot on account of the hounds, had j)luckil\' 
gone in and cut the boar's throat — an operation necessi- 
tating no little nerve. 
The boars in this part of the world run to a big size and 
are said to be as game, when wounded, as the Indian 
boar, of which I have had some experience. I was told, 
however, that serious accidents seldom happen on this 
account, but what surprised me most is that no one ever 
seems to get shot ! 
After settling the destination of the bag, we motored- 
home in the evening, with a large dead boar and two 
bandaged hounds in the back of the car. Altogether it 
was a most interesting and enjoyable day, and was quite 
a new experience for me. I hope sincerely that, when 
the war is over, I shall have many another such a day in 
the same vicinity, but trust to get a shot at something 
more exciting than a Frenchman's leggings ! 
Princess Patricia of Connaught hopes to he jircsont at a 
v-aricty cntertainincnt arranged by Mr. P>ncst Thesigcr, 
which will take place at the Kitz Hotel to-morrow afternoon, 
in aid of the ^^■ar Hospital Supply Workers, a branch of 
Queen Mary's Needlework Guild. Tickets can be obtained 
from ^Irs. Remington l^obert and Miss Townshend-Wilson, 
4, Grosvcnor Square. A vety strong programme ha's been 
drawn up, those who will help include Fady ' ''ston, Mmc. 
Suggia, Miss Fay Compton, Miss Sybil Eatcju, Miss Beryl 
Freeman, Mr. Bertram Binyon, and Mr. Owen Nares. 
Jlr. Charles Dixon's fine painting The Landing of the 
I.ancashircs at Galipoli on April 25th. 1915, which attracted 
so much attention when it was exhit»itecl by the Pine Art 
Society at their New Bond Street galleries, has been now 
splendidly reproduced in colour, artist proofs signed by the 
urtist, £.3 3s., prints a guinea each. 
