[HARE HUNTING.]
This sport has a peculiar interest for women inasmuch as they are able to take a leading part in it. With foxhounds, the duties of the huntsman are too arduous, even though a woman M.F.H. has not been unknown in the past. But to the Lady Salisbury of venatic fame who hunted the fox manfully over Hertfordshire, we may refer as the exception that proves the rule, for few women would feel they had the physical strength for the task.
With harriers, however, the case is different, for in the first place the little hounds are very handy, and the hunting of the hare is a sport which should above all things be conducted quietly. The less holloaing and noise there is with them the better, for the hounds should be trusted to work out the puzzles set them by the hare, with as little interference as possible. Of course hare hunting may be turned into a poor imitation of fox-hunting, by racing a hare to death with 22-inch foxhound bitches, but this is not true sport in any sense, for it gives the quarry little chance of saving its life, and should be discountenanced by all lovers of the chase. Apropos of this subject, there was in a certain harrier country a great, flat-sided, long-legged hound which attracted the notice of a sport-loving stranger, as being evidently too fast for the pack. In all innocence this visitor remarked to the Master, "I suppose you will draft that hound?" To his astonishment the Master, with an expression of horror and indignation, exclaimed, "Draft him, why he is the best hound I have. He kills more hares than all the rest put together." The visitor said nothing, but he knew the kind of sport that lay before him.
To leave the travesty of honest hare hunting, let us turn to the more pleasing subject of how the chase should be carried on, and here at the threshold we may pause to recall the names of those women, who of late years have carried the horn and hunted their own hounds. Mrs. Cheape, the Squire of Bentley, has shown good sport for many a year, first with the Wellfield Beagles, and since 1892 with the Bentley Harriers with which her name is so intimately connected. Mrs. Pryse-Rice became M.H. only two years later, having started her pack in 1894, and last season a third name appeared in our hunting lists, when Lady Gifford took the field and carried the horn with her harriers. Great success has attended both the kennel and field management of these enterprising sportswomen, and when we come to consider the history of their efforts, we shall see that they have proved the fitness of women for the duties in which they themselves have excelled. Lady Ileene Campbell too, before her marriage, proved herself fully equal to the hunting of her brother Lord Huntingdon's celebrated pack in Ireland, the Duchess of Newcastle at the present time enjoys the pleasure of hunting her little pack in the neighbourhood of Clumber, while Mrs. Briscoe in Ireland whips in to her husband's hounds, and Miss Lloyd of Bronwydd does the same to her father Sir Marteine Lloyd's famous pack of beagles in South Wales.
As we have already said, there should be no fuss and bustle in the field with harriers. When hunting them you should never interfere with them unless they are entirely at fault, and then you should have some definite idea of where the hare is gone, and should know, or think you know, something the hounds do not. There is no cracking of whips wanted in this sport. A touch on the horn, or, better still, a low whistle—if you possess this accomplishment which to many good sportswomen is denied—should bring your pack round you, and you should then slowly trot off in the direction in which you think you will pick up the line. If you view the hare, as you often will, squatted close to your horse's feet, do your utmost to prevent the hounds getting a view, for it is the destruction of good sport with harriers for them to view the hare till within a few moments of the end. The hunting should be done fairly and honestly, inch by inch, till the quarry has been run down. Any hound, therefore, that is given to staring about for a view, I would draft, or make a present of to one of those packs which holloa, mob, and course hares to death.
MRS. PRYSE-RICE'S KENNELS.
(WOODMORTON CHARITY AND WILFUL.)
Foot people who as a rule come out largely with harriers will of course holloa, and in some cases when they receive no encouragement to do so, but their too noisy zeal should be steadily discouraged, and while you show every willingness to let this part of the field see sport, you should let it be known that you wish for, and expect silence from them. If your wishes are not respected, I should then advise you either to take hounds home, or trot right away for two or three miles before you look for another hare. No woman should attempt to hunt hounds who has not the resolution to keep her field—both mounted and unmounted—in proper order. You may indeed—for it is very hard for some men to believe that a woman can understand hound-work—be troubled by suggestions from your field, which they would never dream of offering if a man were carrying the horn, but most women will know how to meet such cases with the courteous indifference which will protect them from further interference. An instance of this has lately come to my knowledge. A lady M.H.'s pack was drawing for a hare on some moorland, and it was evident to her that hounds were on a very stale line, but were slowly working it out foot by foot. This was not very amusing to her field, and at last the farmer who owned the land went up to her and said that hares never worked the way hounds were going, and asked if she would not cast them up the moor. The M.H., however, answered quietly that while she felt sure the farmer knew the run of his hares, she thought the hounds were close on their's, and that in another moment or two it would get up in front of them. The words were scarcely spoken when up got the hare, and the worthy mentor had to sit down and ride for all he was worth, for she ran as only a moorland hare can, and hounds had a fast forty-five minutes before they ran into her in the open.