HARE-HUNTING
—is a well-known sport, of very ancient and enthusiastic enjoyment, reported, by the most celebrated ANTIQUARIES, to have been established more than two thousand years before the Christian æra. Various opinions have been occasionally promulgated, and perseveringly supported, (by cynical rigidity, and religious severity,) upon the "cruelty of the chase;" which, however, is now never likely to be shaken in either theory or practice, as to almost every PACK OF HOUNDS in the kingdom there are clerical devotees, who are by no means unworthy MEMBERS of the CHURCH.
Hare-hunting, though universal in every part of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, is in the highest estimation in those open and champaign counties where, from want of covert, a STAG or FOX is never seen. Here the hares are stouter, more accustomed to long nightly exercise, more frequently disturbed, more inured to severe courses before GREYHOUNDS, and hard runs before hounds; consequently, calculated to afford much better sport than can be expected in either an inclosed or woodland country. There are three distinct kinds of hounds, with which this particular chase is pursued, according to the soil and natural face of the district where it is enjoyed. The large slow SOUTHERN HOUND is adapted to the low swampy, marshy lands, so conspicuous in many parts of Lancashire; as well as those in Norfolk, and various others bordering upon the sea. The small, busy, indefatigable BEAGLE seems appropriated by nature to those steep, hilly and mountainous parts, where it is impossible for the best horse and boldest rider to keep constantly with the hounds. The hounds now called HARRIERS, and originally produced by a cross between the SOUTHERN HOUND and the DWARF FOX, are the only hounds to succeed in those open countries, where, for want of covert, the hare goes five or six miles an end without a turn; as is frequently the case in many parts of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and other counties; constituting chases very superior to many FOX HOUNDS, hunting beechen coverts and woodland districts.
Hare-hunting, when put in competition with the pursuit of STAG or fox, is much more gratifying to the ruminative and reflecting mind, than either of the other two; as it affords a more ample field for minute observation upon the instinctive sagacity of the GAME, and the patient, persevering fortitude of the HOUND, in the various heads, turns, and doubles, of the chase. Hence it is that hare-hunting is principally followed, and most enjoyed, by sportsmen in the decline of life; but with the younger branches it is held in very slender estimation, as they in general appreciate the excellence of sport more by the difficulty in pursuing it, than by its duration. Hare-hunting, in a woody or inclosed country, is such a perpetual routine of repetition within a small sphere, affording no more than a continual succession of the same thing, that with a zealous rider, and a high-mettled horse, it soon palls upon the appetite of both. Young men, from emulative motives, (naturally appertaining to their time of life,) feel a pressing propensity to encounter obstacles, and surmount difficulties, where the effect of vigour and manly courage can be displayed, and consequently prefer the kind of chase where personal fortitude, and bodily exertion, are brought more to the proof; and where, by covering a larger scope of country, and with a much greater proportional rapidity, a more pleasing and extensive variety is obtained.
Another cause of mortification constantly presents itself to young sportsmen with HARRIERS, or BEAGLES, in the field: a valuable horse, or a bold rider, are equally unnecessary in HARE-HUNTING, and this is eternally brought to an incontrovertible proof; for after a burst of five minutes, in which a perfect hunter has an opportunity of displaying his speed, and, after clearing some dangerous leaps, a sudden turn or double of the HARE, brings him by the side of a rustic upon a poney of five pounds value, who is nine times out of ten as forward as himself. The infinite time lost in finding, where hares are not in great plenty; the frequency of faults; the persecuting tediousness of cold hunting; and the injury done to HORSES in drizzling dreary days, during hours of slow action, are great drawbacks to the pleasure this species of hunting would otherwise afford.
Moderate sportsmen will never avail themselves of immoderate means to occasion a contraction of their own sport, by a wanton or unnecessary destruction of hares; too great a body of hounds should never be brought into the field, or any unfair modes adopted during the chase: pricking a hare in the paths, or upon the highways, as well as placing emissaries upon the soil, are paltry, mean, and disgraceful artifices, that no genuine, well-bred, HONEST SPORTSMAN, will ever permit; but candidly acknowledge, if the HOUNDS cannot kill her, she ought to ESCAPE. In respect to numbers, less than TWELVE, or more than EIGHTEEN couple ought never to be brought from the kennel to the chase; nor, indeed, seldom are, unless with those who think much less of SPORT, than of personal pride and ostentation.
Mr. Beckford, who is a perfect master of this subject, has so completely investigated, and minutely explained, every particular appertaining to the chase of both HARE and FOX, that as it is absolutely impossible to suggest an idea, or communicate a thought, but what must carry with it the appearance of plagiarism; it will be more candid, (evidently more honest) to introduce occasional passages in his own words, as language more expressive, by which they will be infinitely better understood. He says, "By inclination he was never a hare-hunter; but followed the diversion more for air and exercise than amusement; and if he could have persuaded himself to ride on the turnpike road to the three mile stone, and back again, he never should have thought himself in need of a pack of harriers."
He then apologizes to "his brother HARE-HUNTERS for holding the sport so cheap, not wishing to offend; alluding more relatively to his own particular situation in a country where hare-hunting is so bad, that it is more extraordinary he should have persevered in it so long, than he should have forsaken it then." Adding, "how much he respects hunting in whatever shape it appears; that it is a manly and a wholesome exercise, and seems by nature designed to be the amusement of a Briton." He is of opinion that more than twenty couple of hounds should never be brought into the field; supposing it difficult for a greater number to run well together; and a pack of harriers can never be complete who do not. He thinks the fewer hounds you have, the less you soil the ground, which sometimes proves a hindrance to the chase.
Custom has greatly varied in the practice of HARE-HUNTING during the last thirty years: at that time the hounds left the kennel at day-light, took trail upon being thrown off, and soon went up to their GAME; which having the pleasure to find by their own instinctive sagacity, they pursued with the more determined alacrity: a brace or leash of hares were then killed, and the sport of the day concluded, by the hour it is now the fashion for the company to take the field. As the trail of a hare lays both partially and imperfectly when it gets late in the day, so the difficulty of finding is increased, in proportion to the lateness of the hour at which the hounds are thrown off; hence it is that HARE-FINDERS, so little known at that time, are now become so truly instrumental to the sport of the day.
Although their services are welcome to the eager and expectant sportsman, yet it is on all hands admitted, they are prejudicial to the discipline of hounds; for having such assistance, they become habitually idle, and individually wild: expecting the game to be readily found for them, they become totally indifferent to the task of finding it themselves. Hounds of this description know the hare-finder as well as they know the HUNTSMAN, and will not only, upon sight, set off to meet him, but have eternally their heads thrown up in the air, in expectation of a view HOLLOA!
With all well-managed packs, they are quietly brought up to the place of meeting; and when thrown off, a general silence should prevail, that every hound may be permitted to do his own work. Hounds well bred, and well broke to their business, seldom want assistance. Officious intrusions frequently do more harm than good: nothing requires greater judgment, or nicer observation in speaking to a hound, than to know the critical time when a word is wanting. Young men, like young hounds, are frequently accustomed to babble when newly entered, and, by their frivolous questions or conversation, attract the attention of the hounds, and insure the silent curse of the HUNTSMAN, as well as the contemptuous indifference of every experienced sportsman in the field.
Whenever a hare is turned out of her form, or jumps up before the hounds, a general shout of clamorous exultation too frequently prevails, by which the hare's intentional course is perverted, and she is often headed, or turned into the body of the HOUNDS to a certain death; when, on the contrary, was she permitted to go off with less alarm, and to break view, without being so closely pressed at starting, there is no doubt but much better runs would be more generally obtained. Individual emulation, or individual obstinacy, invariably occasions horsemen in hare-hunting to be too near the hounds, who, being naturally urged by the rattling of the horses, and the exulting zeal of the riders, often very much over-run the scent, and have no alternative but to turn and divide amidst the legs of the horses, so soon as they have lost it; and to this circumstance may be justly attributed many of the long and tedious faults which so frequently occur, and render this kind of chase the less attracting.
Gentlemen who keep HARRIERS vary much in their modes of hunting them; but the true sportsman never deviates from the strict impartiality of the chase. If a hare is found sitting, and the hounds too near at hand, they are immediately drawn off, to prevent her being chopped in her form: the hare is then silently walked up by the individual who previously found her, and she is permitted to go off at her own pace, and her own way. The hounds are then drawn over the spot from whence she started, where taking the scent, they go off in a style of uniformity, constituting what may be fairly termed the consistency of the chase. Others there are who never can, or never will, resist the temptation of giving the hounds a view, and never fail to tell you, both HARE and HOUNDS run the better for it. In addition to this humane method of beginning the chase, every advantage is taken of the poor affrighted animal's distress, amidst all its little instinctive efforts for the preservation of life. The hounds, instead of being permitted to run the soil, and kill the hare by dint of their own persevering labour, are constantly capped from chase to view; and the object of the sport most wantonly and uncharitably destroyed; for nothing less than a miracle can effect its escape.
Those of nicer sensations enjoy the sport, but enjoy it much more mercifully; and would rather see their own hounds occasionally beaten, than, by any unfair or unsportsman-like introduction, kill their hare. These never permit a profusion of vociferous assistance from the huntsman, who is enjoined to an almost silent execution of his own duty, that the hounds may not be prevented (by his noise) from a strict and attentive performance of theirs. If they throw up, upon a dry or greasy fallow, a footpath, a highway, or a turnpike-road, a thousand busy bustling endeavours are to be self-made for a recovery of the scent, before any one effort is permitted to assist in lifting them along; and even then, not till every patient and persevering struggle has failed of success. The sportsman of this description admits of no device, stratagem, or foul play whatever; the HOUNDS must hunt the hare; they must go over every inch of ground she has gone before them; they must hit off their own checks, recover their faults; and, by cold hunting, pick it along, where, in passing through a flock of sheep, the ground has been foiled, and the chase proportionally retarded. Early and extensive casts are unjust, unless upon some unexpected or unavoidable emergency; as the repeated interventions of sheep, or intersections of roads, or fallows in a dry season; when it would be impossible to make the least progress in getting the hounds along without assistance.
When hounds come to a check, not a horse should move, not a voice should be heard: every hound is eagerly employed, exerting all his powers for a recovery of the scent, in which, if not officiously obstructed, they will most probably soon succeed. At such times there is generally, and unluckily, some popinjay in the field, who, unfortunately for himself, never speaks but upon the most improper occasion; rendering, at such moment, the judicious observation of Mr. Beckford truly neat and applicable, that "when in the field, he never desires to hear any other tongue than a HOUND." Whenever assistance to hounds is become unavoidably necessary, and the chase cannot be carried on without, sound judgment, and long experience, are necessary to speedy success. Casts cannot be made by any fixed, certain, or invariable rules, but must, at different times, be differently dependent upon the chase, the soil, the weather, and the kind of country you are hunting in. It may, in one instance, be prudent to try forward first; in another, to try back; as it may be judicious, or necessary, to make a small circular cast at one time, and a much larger at another; and although to one of the field, circumstances may appear, in either instance, to have been nearly the same, yet they have not been so in the "mind's eye" of the HUNTSMAN, (or the person hunting the hounds,) upon whose superior knowledge, or circumspection, the good or ill effect of the experiment must depend.
None, but weak or inexperienced sportsmen, ever presume to obtrude their opinions when hounds are at fault; those who do it, soon find the interference is ill-timed, and that it only excites a contemptuous indifference. Strangers cannot be too cautious and circumspect in the field, if they wish to avoid just reproofs, and not to encounter rebuffs: some there are, whose hard fate it is to become conspicuously ridiculous upon every occasion that can occur, and to such, unfortunately for them, occasions are seldom wanting. During the chase, they are riding into, over, or before, the HOUNDS; and at every check, asking some vexatious, trifling question of the HUNTSMAN; or entering into a frivolous conversation with what seems to them the most vulnerable subject of the company. Officious individuals of this description, whose error too frequently originates in a certain degree of personal pride, and unbounded confidence, should learn to know, that "the post of honour is a private station;" as well as that an old pollard in a painting, might be admirably calculated to form a respectable object in the back-ground, but never intended by the artist to become a principal figure in the front of the picture.