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!