Page:The Hare.djvu/153

Rh most of their one day's sport. Pity it is that the Hares and Rabbits Act has put an end to such innocent country amusements, and driven the small farmers and their labourers to the nearest towns for amusement in their leisure time; but there is no getting away from the fact that the Act referred to has done immense harm, and I am told that there has been no coursing on the High Law Farm for at least ten years, owing to the scarcity of hares. However good a sportsman a farmer might be, and no matter how much he tried to keep a head of hares, what was he to do when he knew that his neighbours were popping away at poor puss on every available occasion, and that if a hare left his farm in search of a meal, someone was lying in wait for her, who would shoot her from ambush as she lobbed down the hedgeside. It makes one who has known country coursing, and enjoyed sport with harriers in many places where neither now exists, infinitely sad to know that there are so few hares left, for, with the sole exception of the fox, no English animal ever afforded so much or so varied sport; and what is saddest of all is that no sort of amusement has arisen in place of coursing and hare-hunting in those places where both sports used to flourish.

To return, however, to High Law. We generally