Paper Chase (game)

Paper Chase (also known as Hare and Hounds or Chalk Chase) is a racing game played outdoors (best played within a wood or even a shrubbery maze) with any number of players. At the start of the game, one person is designated the 'hare' and everyone else in the group are the 'hounds'. The 'hare' starts off ahead of everyone else leaving behind themselves a trail of paper shreds (or chalk marks in an urban environment) which represents the scent of the hare. Just as scent is carried on the wind, so too are the bits of paper, sometimes making for a difficult game. After some designated time, the hounds must chase after the hare and attempt to catch them before they reach the ending point of the race. It is generally done over a long distance, but shorter courses can be set. If the hare makes it to the finish line, they get to choose the next hare, or to be the hare themselves. Similarly, the person who catches the hare gets to choose the next hare.

A game called "Hunt the Fox" or "Hunt the Hare" had been played in English schools at least since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare appears to make reference to it in Hamlet, when he eludes the guards at Elsinore he cries "Hide, fox, and all after". Around 1800 the game was organised at Shrewsbury School into an outdoor game called "the Hunt" or "the Hounds", to prepare the young gentlemen for their future pastime of fox hunting. The two runners making the trail with paper were called "foxes", those chasing them were called "hounds". Hare coursing rather than fox hunting was used as an analogy when the game spread to Bath School, so the trail-makers were called "hares". This term was made popular by the paper chase scene in Tom Brown's School Days and is still used in modern hashing and in club names like Thames Hare and Hounds, but Shrewsbury continues to use fox hunting terms as evidenced in The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler (see below) - "in this case the hare was a couple of boys who were called foxes". The Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt is the oldest cross-country club in the world, with written records going back to 1831 and evidence that it was established by 1819. The club officers are the Huntsman, Senior and Junior Whips whilst the runners are Hounds, who start most races paired into "couples"; the winner of a race is said to "kill". The main inter-house cross-country races are still called the Junior and Senior Paperchase, although no paper is dropped and urban development means the historical course can no longer be followed.

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