FOX-HUNTING 



The greatest drop of which I have record occurred on the 

 19th February 1886 in the Blackmore Vale country. The 

 second whipper-in ascended the shghtly slanting elm up which 

 the fox, helped by ivy, had climbed. The fox eventually went 

 nearly to the top, and as it was thought he must fall and be 

 killed when he tried to get down, he was dislodged. He 

 dropped a distance of forty-four feet, falling on his nose and 

 chest, but stood up before hounds for two miles before they 

 killed him. 



A season never passes without half a dozen foxes seeking 

 shelter in dwellings — rather a pathetic tribute to humanity ; 

 but the most resolute seeker after such sanctuary is that 

 recorded of a fox hunted by the Border on 4th February 1904. 

 First he tried, and failed, to take refuge in a smithy wash- 

 house at Yetholm : then crossed the village and hid in the room 

 of a house undergoing repairs : driven out, he entered yet 

 another house by the kitchen window and went upstairs to a 

 bedroom : dislodged again, he was run into and killed in a 

 neighbouring garden. There is record of a fox seeking a 

 hiding-place in the cleaned carcase of a recently killed sheep, 

 but I cannot find particulars. 



The strangest place in which to lay up her litter was chosen 

 by a Heythrop vixen in July 1874. There is at Oddington an 

 old disused church : the vixen established her nursery in the 

 pulpit. 



When we consider how closely the country is hunted, it is 

 not wonderful that packs should occasionally clash. On 

 3rd April 1877 Lord Galway's, on their way to draw Maltby 

 Wood, after a morning run, hit off the line of a fox : he showed 

 signs of being beaten, and they killed him after a com- 

 paratively short burst. While breaking him up Lord Fitz- 

 william's hounds came up : Lord Galway's had ' cut in ' and 

 killed the fox they were hunting. 



The average weight of the fox is put at from 11 to 14 lbs. : 

 of a vixen, 9 to 12 lbs. All the heaviest foxes recorded have 

 been fell foxes : the biggest actually weighed was killed by 



19 



