Parkhurst Boys | Page 5

of the
united pursuit of some twenty or thirty of my schoolfellows, who
would glory in running me down not a whit less than I should glory in
escaping them.
For some weeks previously we had been taking short trial runs, to test
our pace and powers of endurance; and Birch (my fellow-"hare") and I
had more than once surveyed the course we proposed to take on the
occasion of the "great hunt," making ourselves, as far as possible,
acquainted with the bearings of several streams, ploughed fields, and
high walls to be avoided, and the whereabouts of certain gaps, woods,
and hollows to be desired. We were glad afterwards that we had taken
this precaution, as the reader will see.
I can't say if the Parkhurst method of conducting our "hunts" was the
orthodox one; I know we considered it was, as our rules were our own
making, or rather a legacy left to us by a former generation of runners
at the school.
We were to take, in all, a twelve miles' course, of nearly an oval shape,
six miles out and six miles home. Any amount of dodging or doubling
was to be allowed to us hares, except crossing our own path. We were
to get five minutes' clear start, and, of course, were expected to drop
our paper "scent" wherever we went.
Luckily for me, Birch was an old hand at running hare, and up to all
sorts of dodges, so that I knew all it was needful for me to do was to
husband my "wind," and run evenly with him, leaving him to shape our
course and regulate our pace.
It was a lively scene at the Dean's Warren, when we reached it a few
minutes before the appointed time that afternoon. The "pack"--that is,
the twenty or thirty fellows who were to run as "hounds"--were fast
assembling, and divesting themselves of everything but their light
flannels. The whipper-in, conspicuous by the little bugle slung across
his shoulders, and the light flag in his hand, was there in all the
importance of his office; and, as usual, the doctor and a party of visitors,

ladies and gentlemen, had turned out to witness the start.
"Five minutes, hares!" shouts Forwood, as Birch and I came on the
spot.
We use the interval in stripping off all unnecessary apparel, and girding
ourselves with our bags of "scent," or scraps of torn-up paper, which
we are to drop as we run. Then we sit and wait the moment for starting.
The turf is crisp under our feet; the sun is just warm enough to keep us
from shivering as we sit, and the wind just strong enough to be fresh.
Altogether it is to be doubted if a real meet of real hounds to hunt real
hares--a cruel and not very manly sport, after all--could be much more
exciting than this is.
"Half a minute!" sings out the whipper-in, as we spring to our feet.
In another thirty seconds we are swinging along at a good pace down
the slope of the warren, in the direction of Colven meadows, and the
hunt has begun.
As long as we were in sight of the pack we kept up a good hard pace,
but on reaching cover we settled down at once to a somewhat more
sober jog- trot, in anticipation of the long chase before us.
We made good use of our five minutes' start, for by the time a distant
bugle note announced that the hounds were let loose on our track we
had covered a good piece of ground, and put several wide fields and
ditches and ugly hedges between us and our pursuers.
Now it was that Birch's experiences served us in good stead. I never
knew a fellow more thoroughly cunning; he might have been a fox
instead of a hare. Sometimes he made me run behind him and drop my
scent on the top of his, and sometimes keep a good distance off, and let
the wind scatter it as much as it could. When we came to a gap, instead
of starting straight across the next field he would turn suddenly at right
angles, and keep close up under the hedge half-way round before
striking off into the open. Among trees and bushes he zigzagged and
doubled to an alarming extent, so that it seemed as if we were losing

ground every moment. So we should have been if the chase had been
by sight instead of by scent; but that would have been against all rules.
If the hounds were to see the hares twenty yards in front of them, and
the scent lay half a mile round, they would be bound, according to our
rules, to go the half-mile, however tempting the