William Blane, William Somervile

“ These abound with horrid stories of the young and ingenuous Peasant torn from his weeping Parents, and his distracted Bride, and either hurried into a loathsome dungeon, or banished to an unhealthy climate, only for the murder of a Hare or a Partridge. But I will venture to say, there is hardly a Day-laborer in the kingdom that may not, in a reasonable manner, be indulged with the use of these animals by a proper application; and if he is fond of the diversion they afford, and chuses to be idly busy rather rather, industriously so, he may perfectly satisfy. ”

“ The greatest art and curiosity is discovered in hunting the soil, especially if she immediately steal back behind the Dogs the same path she came for it must require the utmost skill to distinguish well the new scent from the old, when both are mixed, obscured, and confounded with the strong perspirations of so many Dogs and Horses. ”

“ They keep running on with joy and spirit, investigating the trail through every turn, now in circles, now straight forward, now obliquely, through thick and thin, places known and unknown, passing each other by turns, moving their tails, throwing back their ears, and their eyes darting fire. ”

“ She should, therefore, be suffered to run some distance from her form and recollect her spirits, and then, if she is a good sporting Hare, she will lift up her ears, and stretch out with long rates from her seat, the dogs directing their course after her with great activity of limbs, as if they were leaping, affording a spectacle worthy the trouble that must necessarily be employed in properly breeding and training these dogs. ”

“ That there is a different scent in other animals of the same species, is evident from the draught Hounds, which were formerly made use of for tracing and pursuing Thieves and Deer-stealers, or rather from any common Cur or Spaniel, which will hunt out their master, or their master's horse distinctly from all others: and that it is the same with the Hare is no less visible from the old Beagles, which will not readily change for a fresh one, unless she starts in view, or unless a fault happens that puts them in confuson, and inclines them in despair to take up with the next they can come by. ”

“ If many dogs are taken out, they should not be stationed promiscuously; for, when the Hare is started, no one will refrain from slipping his own dog, each being desirous of seeing his own dog run, and the Hare, confused and terrified by the noise and number of the dogs, will be taken without shewing any sport, and the diversion, which is the chief
object, will be spoiled. A person, therefore, should be appointed to take the command of the sport, and the greyhounds being in slips, two together, he should give these orders, "If the Hare takes this way, you loose yours, and no one else ”

“ That these particles of scent are of an equal (exactly equal) specific gravity with the particles of the air, is demonftrated by the falling and rising of them in just proportion to it. I have often smiled at hasty Huntsmen, to hear them rating and cursing their dogs (that yesterday were the best in England) for galloping and staring, with their noses in the air, as if their game was flown; for often does it happen that it is in vain for them to seek after the scent in any other place, the increasing weight of that fluid element having wafted it over their heads. ”

“ Dogs should never be taken out to hunt unless they eat their food heartily, for if they do not, it is a sign that they are not healthy; neither if there is a high wind, for it dissipates the scent and prevents their hunting, neither can the toils or nets stand.
When neither of these things hinder, they should be taken out every third day. They should never be suffered to hunt Foxes, as that does them the greatest damage, and [22] they never are steady when it is necessary. ”

“ Those who have not good Hare-finders, go commonly out, a number in company, on horseback; and, coming to a likely place, when they happen to start a Hare, let the greyhounds loose after her. But those, who are more diligent after the sport, go out on foot; and, if any one accompanies them on horseback, it is his business to follow the dogs when they run. ”

“ This laft case very often happens at the going off of a frost; the mercury is then commonly falling, and by consequence the scent sinking to the ground. The earth is naturally on such occasion fermenting, dissolving, stinking, exhaling, and very porous, so that it is impossible but most of the particles must then be corrupted, buried, or overcome by stronger vapours. It is common to hear the vulgar say, she carries dirt in her heels; but that is not all, it being very plain, by what has been observed, that it is not only by the scent of the foot she is so eagerly pursued. ”

“ I am there censured for adopting the technical Hunting Language of the present day; but, besides the curiosity of perceiving that the hunting phrases, and even the hollows, of the Antient Greek sportsman, exactly resembled those of the modern English one,it will be found impossible to render the original at all intelligible in a translation by any other means. I think the notes on the following pages will fully shew, that it is very difficult for a general Greek scholar to translate a Treatise on any particular Art, without being in some degree versed in that Art himself. ”

“ Those Gauls, who only course for the sport, and not to live by what they catch, never use nets. They have also a breed of dogs, not less excellent in running by the scent than the Carian and Cretan breed, but of a disagreeable and savage form; and they give their tongues, and open on the scent, in the same manner with the Carians; but they are more vehement when they find the scent. They are too eager on the trail, and so noisy, that I must condemn them, giving their tongues as freely on the trail as after the Hare is found ”

“ The most terrible day for the Hare is, when the air is in its mean gravity, or equilibrio, tolerable moist, but inclining to grow drier, and fanned with the gentle breezes of the zephyrs: the moderate gravity buoys up the scent as high as the Dog's breast; the vesicles of moisture serve as so many canals, or vehicles, to carry the effluvia into their noses ”

“ And it becomes also perplexed when Foxes have passed over it before.
In the spring, on account of the mild temperature of the air, the trail would be very strong, if the earth, being full of flowers, did not puzzle the dogs, by mixing with it the odour of the blossoms. In the summer it is slight and imperfect; for the earth being hot, it destroys the warm particles it contains; and the scent itself is not only slight, but the dogs also smell less, on account of the relaxation of their bodies. In the autumn it is pure ”

“ Whoever has good greyhounds should never lay them in too near the Hare, nor run more than two at a time. For, though the animal is very swift, and will oftentimes beat the dogs, yet, when she is first started, she is so terrified by the hollowing, and by the dogs being very close, that her heart is overcome by fear, and, in the confusion very often the best sporting Hares are killed without shewing any diversion. ”

“ This often happens in a calm, gentle, steady frost, when, as I conceive, the purity, coldness, or, perhaps, the nitre of the air, serves to fix and preserve the few remaining particles, that they do not easily corrupt. At ther season, when the air is light, or growing lighter, the scent must proportionably be falling or sinking, and then every Dog, though, in the height of his courage, he pushes forwards, yet is forced to come back again and again, and cannot make any sure advances, but with his nose in the ground. ”

“ If she ran straight forward these things would seldom happen to her; but running a ring, and loving the places where she was bred and has fed, she is taken; for Hares, when followed by the foot, are not often caught by the speed of the dogs, but they are taken, contrary to the nature of the animal, by accident; for no animal of the same size equals the Hare for swiftness, her body being constructed in this manner:
The head is light, small, inclining downwards, and narrow in front. ”

“ In the first course, there is no objection to speaking to them as often as we chuse; but, in the second or third course, when they will probably be weakened, I do not think it right to call them too often by name, lest, through too eager a defsire to please their master, they should exert themfelves beyond their flrength, and hurt their inside, which has been the destruction of many a good dog; but they should be permitted to run as they please, for there is no greater contest than that between the Hare and the dog. ”

“ It is very plain, the slower the Hare moves, the stronger and grosser, ceteris peribus, are these particles she leaves behind her, which I take to be one reason (besides the cloathing and shielding of them from the penetrating air by the descending frost or dew) that the morning walk will give scent [2] so much longer than the flight in hunting. However, it is as remarkable, that these odorous particles gradually decay and end with her life [3] , because it requires the most curious noses to lead the cry when she is near her last ”

“ To take the trail of the Hare the dogs should be drawn [9] from the cultivated fields upwards; (i. e. towards the mountains;) but those who do not come into cultivated places must be tried for in meadows, marshes, by streams, on rocks, or in woods. When the Hare is moved there should be no hollowing, lest the dogs, being made [10] too eager, should be hardly brought to find the scent. ”

“ It is not right to loose the greyhounds at a young Hare, which, according to the advice of [18] Xenophon, should be spared, and the finders, if possible, should be called off, which is very difficult, as they are not under good command, being eager through hunger; and so desirous are they of eating up what they catch, that it is hard to get them off even by beating them with sticks. ”

“ But there are other persons whose suffrages I am very desirous of obtaining, that may be inclined to look with disdain on a Work that treats chiefly of Hare-hunting, and seems to give it the preference to all the diversions of the fame kind. I mean the noble fraternity of Fox-hunters. As a Sportsman, I would carefully deprecate the resentment of so respectable a body, nor presume to defend the Author of the following Letters, in questioning the allowed superiority of Fox-hunting over the humbler
sports of the Hare-chace. ”

“ The mention of frost puts me in mind of a particular observation of my own making, that may be useful or diverting to my Brethren of the Chace: You all make it a great part of your pleasure to hunt out the walk of a Hare to her seat, and doubtless you have often been surprizingly disappointed on such occasions. You have many times been able to hunt the same walk in one part of the fields and not in another; you have hunted the same walk at ten or eleven, which gave the least scent at seven in the morning ”

“ I much question whether our morals, or even our manners, are greatly improved by that style of living, which empties our country feats to fill the metropolis, or the large provincial towns; and whether the manly character that once distinguished the Englishman has not suffered more on the side of firmness and integrity, than it has gained on that of politeness and elegance, by sacrificing the rough sports of the Field to the softer amusements of the Assembly and Card Table. ”

“ I myself often, when I have followed the course on horseback, and have come up time enough to save the Hare alive, have taken her from the dogs, and tied them up, and let her go: and sometimes, when I have come up too late to save her, I have not been able to avoid striking the dogs on the head for killing so good an antagonist. ”

“ Though, even at fuch a season, after the first mettle and fury of the cry is something abated, the more steady Beagles may make a shift to pick it out by the particles left by the brush of her feet, efpecially if there be not a strong, drying, exhaling wind to hurry these away after the rest. ”

“ But that Laws should be made to prevent the man, whose family depends entirely on his labor for support, from quitting his flail, his plough, or his spade, to range the woods for the destruction of animals, which afford a noble and manly diversion to their Proprietor, I can conceive no more inconsistent with justice, than that he should be prevented from entering the orchard or the hen-roost. ”