The Hunt in Literature 35 



tested by a simple but nevertheless searching test. 

 I turn to one of the best prose books ever written 

 on the life of the Fox, The Life of a FoXy as TVritten 

 by Himself by Thomas Smith, Master of the Craven 

 Hounds, and afterwards of the Pytchley Hounds, 

 Northamptonshire. There I find in prose what 

 Mr. Masefield has given us in his poetry. The 

 work of Thomas Smith is deservedly famous. After 

 reading it we can understand as never before some- 

 thing of the life of that strange, fascinating animal, 

 the Fox. Describing the chase of a young fox-cub 

 Smith writes: "One of these (the hounds) at last 

 got fast on my track, and away I went straight to 

 the earth where we were born ; but to my surprise 

 and disappointment, I found it stopped up with a 

 bundle of sticks covered over with earth." Com- 

 pare this with the following passage from Mr. 

 Masefield's poem : — 



He passed the spring where the rushes spread, 



And there in the stones was his earth ahead. 



One last short burst upon faih'ng feet — 



There life lay waiting, so sweet, so sweet, 



Rest in a darkness, balm for aches. 



The earth was stopped. It was barred with stakes. 



One more example may be given : " Soon after 

 I had moved from my kennel, a single hound threw 

 his tongue, Mr. Smith gave a very loud cheer, and 

 every hound appeared at once to be running on the 

 scent. This so frightened me that I lost no time 

 in leaving the covert and taking my way straight 

 to the forest." This from Smith. While Mr. 

 Masefield writes : — 



Then the horn blew nearer, a hound's voice quivered, 

 Then another, then more, till his body shivered, 

 He left his kennel and trotted thence 

 With his ears flexed back and his nerves all tense. 



