Thoughts upon Hunting

, gives an account, unrivalled, of the chase of the hare and fox. Many sporting writers have endeavoured to tread in his steps; but they have failed in giving that graphic account of the pleasures of the field which Mr. Beckford's essay contains.

He says that the sportsman should never have more than 20 couple in the field, because it would he exceedingly difficult to get a greater number to run together, and a pack of harriers cannot be complete if they do not. A hound that runs too fast for the rest, or that lags behind them, should be immediately discarded. His hounds were between the large slow-hunting harrier and the fox-beagle. He endeavoured to get as much bone and strength in as little compass as possible. He acknowledges that this was a difficult undertaking; but he had, at last, the pleasure to see them handsome, small, yet bony, running well together, and fast enough, with all the alacrity that could be desired, and hunting the coldest scent.

He anticipates the present improvement of the chase when he lays it down as a rule never to be departed from, that hounds of every kind should be kept to their own game. They should have one scent, and one style of hunting. Harriers will run a fox in so different a style from the pursuit of a hare, that they will not readily, and often will not at all, return to their proper work. The difference in the scent, and the eagerness of pursuit, and the noise that accompanies fox-hunting, all contribute to spoil a harrier.

[Mr]

. Beckford pleasingly expresses a sportsman's consideration for the poor animal which he is hunting to death.

"A hare," he says, "is a timorous little animal that we cannot help feeling some compassion for at the time that we are pursuing her destruction. We should give scope to all her little tricks, nor kill her foully nor overmatched. Instinct instructs her to make a good defence when not unfairly treated, and I will venture to say that, as far as her own safety is concerned, she has more cunning than the fox, and makes shifts to save her life far beyond all his artifice."[13]

[Contents]/[Detailed Contents, p. 2]/[Index]

The Fox Hound is of a middle size, between the harrier and the stag-hound; it is the old English hound, sufficiently crossed with the greyhound to give him lightness and speed without impairing his scent; and he has now been bred to a degree of speed sufficient to satisfy the man who holds his neck at the least possible price, and with which few, except thorough-bred horses, and not all of them, can live to the end of the chase. The fox-hound is lighter, or as it is now called, more highly bred, or he retains a greater portion of his original size and heaviness, according to the nature of the country and the fancy of the master of the pack: therefore it is difficult to give an accurate description of the best variety of this dog; but there are guiding points which can never be forgotten without serious injury.