76 



CHAPTEE YIIL 



FOX-HUNTING — EARLY AND LATE. 



In no part of England, with the exception perhaps 

 of the New Forest, is the " sport of kings, the 

 image of war," carried on so early and so late as on 

 those great moorlands which take their names from 

 the two rivers to which they give birth — the Exe 

 and the Dart. 



As is well known, regular fox-hunting — as opposed 

 to cub-hunting — begins generally throughout Eng- 

 land at the beginning of November, and dies a 

 natural death at a period varying according to the 

 forwardness of the season between the third week 

 in March and the second in April. But on Exmoor 

 and Dartmoor things are different. The question 

 of crops affects the matter not at all, and even the 

 delicate subject of lambing need enter slightly into 

 the Master's calculations. Besides, as these hounds 

 find their fox as often as not on the open, moor, 

 it is an easy matter to see whether the object of 

 chase is a desirable one or not. In other words, 

 •the hounds can be easily stopped off a gravid vixen 

 or let go if they happen on an old dog-fox, with- 

 out any risk of leaving an interesting family 

 motherless. 



