52 THE MAMMALS, REPTILES, AND FISHES OF ESSEX. 



Another instance was in April, 1784, when Daniel's own 

 whipper-in, returning home after being thrown out by 

 accident, was induced, by the action of a terrier which accom- 

 panied him, to examine more closely a pollard oak tree near 

 a cover on Broomfield Hall farm. Climbing the tree, he dis- 

 covered a Fox and four cubs in a deep hole, at least twenty- 

 three feet above the ground. She had apparently littered 

 there, and had -no other means of reaching them than by 

 climbing the stem of the tree, which was thickly covered with 

 twigs. Many people, the author goes on to say, inspected 

 the tree, and three of the cubs were reared up tame to 

 commemorate the incident. 



Of the Fox's cunning, Daniel relates (Rural Sports, 

 vol. i., pp. 257-258) a humorous story : In 1785, Mr. (afterwards 

 Sir Henry) Bate Dudley, who hunted the Dengie Hundred 

 country with his hounds, frequently had " a good Drag " on 

 the banks of the river Crouch without finding a Fox. One 

 morning, as they were drawing the remote churchyard of 

 Cricksea, strangely overgrown with thick blackthorn bushes, a 

 labouring man called out to the huntsman, " You are too late 

 to find Reynolds at home. He crept off when he heard the 

 hounds challenge about a quarter of an hour ago." In conse- 

 quence of this information, the hounds were taken to different 

 spots for some miles around, but a fall of sleet prevented 

 their finding that day. A fortnight after, however, the Fox 

 was found in an adjoining copse, and after a smart run of 

 over two hours, he shaped his course to his favourite church- 

 yard, where, apparently, desolation and neglect reigned 

 supreme. The hounds being there at check, one of the 

 pack suddenly reared itself up against an ancient buttress 

 and gave tongue ; whereupon the master, declaring his 

 reliance on this, a favourite hound, dismounted and climbed 

 up the broken buttress to the low roof of the church. Here, 



