EARTH-STOPPING 139 



according to the old plan. The pay of an earth- 

 stopper, notwithstanding this arrangement, can, at 

 the master's option, be increased if he produces a 

 litter of cubs in the woods which he looks over ; 

 and if he has a sovereign for every earth he has 

 to stop and open in this way he will be satisfied. 

 Some have two or three earths or more ; but it 

 must be left to the judgment of the master of the 

 hounds. In the two countries hunted by the 

 writer, the men were all satisfied although they 

 did not get so much money ; which was paid to 

 them at an annual dinner in the centre of the 

 country — generally fixing on some old earth-stopper 

 to supply it, who keeps a public-house — at the rate 

 of two shillings for dinner, and one shilling for 

 drinking, each man. 



The advantages gained by this plan are so 

 numerous, that it has always appeared most strange 

 that it has not been known to have ever been 

 adopted by any other master of hounds. But it 

 only requires to be made known, to become 

 generally adopted ; and as good sport was the 

 great object of the writer in first doing it, he will 

 have no difficulty in proving that it is a certain 

 way to get better runs, because they are straighter, 

 as the foxes do not run the rings they used to 

 do — in trying every earth in the country where 

 they are found — as they have already discovered 



