114 The Fox Terrier. 



much the exception in one case as the other. That he is 

 so little used in actual fox hunting is a matter to deplore. 

 Some time ago when reading that volume of the Badminton 

 library which deals with hunting, I was mightily surprised 

 to see so little allusion to terriers. Yet the writer, the 

 Duke of Beaufort, is a hunting man, one who loves to 

 hear his hounds " singing " in their kennels at night, and is 

 never so happy as when the favourite flowers of his pack 

 are making it warm for bold reynard across the meadows 

 of the Midlands. Terriers are only mentioned three times 

 throughout the volume in one place where they are 

 recommended as assistants to harriers when trying along 

 a hedgerow; again, as likely to be useful to the earthstopper; 

 and on a third occasion as requisites for otter hunting. 

 This neglect notwithstanding, a good fox terrier can still 

 be useful in driving a fox from a drain, and our modern 

 strains may do their duty as well as the best that ever ran 

 between John o' Groats and Land's End. When once 

 properly entered, a fox terrier never seems happy until he 

 gets it the fox driven from his lurking place under- 

 ground. 



Most of the modern kennels scarcely contain a soft- 

 hearted terrier, and many of these terriers are regularly 

 trained, broken to- ferrets and rabbiting, whilst some few 

 are seen hanging at the skirts of hounds to follow their 

 legitimate avocation. Mr. Vicary will tell us of some of 

 their work in Devonshire ; in Westmoreland I had terriers 

 which were as good as his, though my experience gave me 

 the impression that a really hard season with otter hounds 

 was more than a smooth-coated modern fox terrier could 

 stand. A little dog I had, Tom Firr by name, so-called 

 after that well-known huntsman, and because the terrier's 



