SPORTSMAN 75 



Though last, not least, one hint to the fair sex, 

 who are always ready to do a kind act to fox- 

 hunters when they have it in their power, and 

 many would give substantial proofs of it, if they 

 had opportunities like the following. It happened 

 in a country once hunted by the writer that a 

 respectable farmer's wife had lost a great number 

 of poultry, including some dozens of full-grown 

 turkeys. Not far distant lived a widow lady, who 

 heard of this loss as well as the cause of it, and, as 

 no one could think of offering to pay the damage 

 done to so respectable a person, a short time after 

 the loss this lady sent a hamper of wine. It is 

 quite unnecessary to say it, but it is a fact 

 that no cover in that country was ever drawn 

 without a fox, and that the lady's health was 

 drunk at every hunt dinner with double honoiu-s 

 afterwards, for it had been a standing toast 

 previously. 



N.B. — A packet of tea or tobacco, would be 

 equally efficacious probably ; not to mention a keg 

 of brandy or hollands, which would come more 

 properly from gentlemen who are friends to the 

 noble sport, but have no other way of showing it. 



Men who hunt are generally perfectly un- 

 acquainted with hunting terms, even the most 

 common, and it has often been an obstacle in 

 conversation when relating a day's sport ; for even 



