THE FOX. 22$ 



heart. Thus the unfortunate brute paid the final penalty for his un- 

 necessary intrusion into the realm of prohibition. 



Although the longing of the fox after poultry cannot be disputed, 

 still, when the Hunt is taken into consideration, his peccadillos are 

 forgotten, and he becomes a valuable animal to us. Farmers and 

 henwives have always an opportunity of protecting their roosts, and 

 of securing their poultry from Reynard's grasp, at a trifling expense. 

 But now-a-days they have to guard against certain bipeds, far more 

 destructive than the fox and all its family put together. Not a fowl- 

 roost nor a goose-house in all the West Riding of Yorkshire can 

 escape the plundering attacks of these midnight villains. Too idle 

 to work, they resort to the alehouse, whence they emerge and shape 

 their course to the different farmyards. If they find the door of the 

 henhouse too strong, they mount aloft, and obtain an entrance 

 through the roof. Whole roosts are cleared in this manner, whilst 

 the thieves themselves are rarely brought to justice. Were it known, 

 ten miles from our own village, that it possessed a fowl-department 

 of easy and of safe access, that fowl-department would certainly be 

 robbed before the dawn of day. 



The Hunt has it always in its power to make staunch friends of 

 the farmers, by remunerating them for losses in poultry really sus- 

 tained, and where the fox alone has been the plunderer. Our game- 

 keepers, too, partaking of an annual good dinner provided by the 

 members of the Hunt, in case the pack consists of what we de- 

 nominate " confederate hounds," and receiving on the same day 

 their perquisite for stopping the earths on the midnight previous to 

 the hunting morning, and also a bonus for a find, as it is usually 

 called, everything would then go on well and satisfactorily to all 

 parties. 



If I shall succeed in showing that the fox is a valuable quadruped 

 to us, in a national point of view, I shall be amply repaid for my 

 trouble, and perfectly satisfied. Indeed, it has been for this end 

 alone that I have taken up the pen on this subject. Nobody can 

 be more convinced than I am of the fox's worthlessness, when con- 

 templated as a little skulking, pilfering, and rapacious animal the 

 farmer's detestation, and the henwife's bane. But when, on the 

 other hand, I behold him in full powers to afford amusement and 



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