speedy as he may, should never be used for the fox; but every dog should be strictly confined to his own game.
Mr. Beckford, in his Thoughts upon Hunting, gives an account, unrivalled, of the chace 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 be 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.
THE HARRIER.
He anticipates the present improvement of the chace 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,
