Hunting Lore. 461 



piece of ill-luck being entered without comment, even 

 when one day he met some more fortunate friends "who 

 had just catched 2 foxes." At last, on February 12th, he 

 himself " catched two foxes " ; the six or eight gentlemen 

 of the neighborhood who made up the field all went home 

 with him to Mt. Vernon, to dine and pass the night, and 

 in the hunt of the following day they repeated the feat of 

 a double score. In the next seven days' hunting he killed 

 four times. 



The runs of course varied greatly in length ; on one 

 day he " found a bitch fox at Piney Branch and killed it in 

 an hour" ; on another he " killed a Dog fox after having 

 him on foot three hours & hard running an hour and a 

 qr." ; and on yet another he " catched a fox with a bobd 

 Tail & cut ears after 7 hours chase in which most of the 

 Doo-s were worsted." Sometimes he caught his fox in 

 thirty-five minutes, and again he might run it nearly the 

 whole day in vain ; the average run seems to have been 

 from an hour and a half to three hours. Sometimes 

 the entry records merely the barren fact of the run ; at 

 others a few particulars are given, with homespun, telling 

 directness, as : " Went a hunting with Jacky Custis and 

 catched a Bitch Fox after three hours chace — founded it 

 on ye. ck. by I. Soals " ; or " went a Fox hunting with Lund 

 Washington — took the drag of a fox by Isaac Gates & 

 carrd. it tolerably well to the old Glebe then touched now 

 and then upon a cold scent till we came into Col. Fair- 

 faxes Neck where we found about half after three upon the 

 Hills just above Accotinck Creek— after running till quite 

 Dark took off the Dogs and came home." 



