66 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



the country, and selecting the most convenient places 

 in the fences to pass through. He actually appeared 

 as if he were thinking what course to pursue. At this 

 crisis, however, he was safe from the pursuit of the 

 hounds. At the time I mention, the railway was in 

 progress of formation between Cheltenham and 

 Gloucester, passing within a field or two of the spot, 

 and from which direction the fox came. My friend and 

 I therefore proceeded to the embankment, expecting to 

 hear or see something of the hounds, and there found 

 upwards of one hundred men at work, by some of 

 whom we were informed that the fox had passed 

 among them and close to a bull terrier, which the 

 owner had luckily secured. On making inquiry after- 

 wards, I discovered the reason the hounds were not 

 then in pursuit of this fox. They had found him in Nor- 

 ton Wood, and with a good scent ran him at a racing 

 pace to Down Hatherley and through the covert, where 

 a fresh fox was disturbed, when, after running a mile 

 clear of the wood, they got on the heel of the latter, 

 and ran it several fields up wind before it was possible 

 to stop them. Thus the hunted fox, after having had a 

 good breathing, escaped ; and his movements, as 

 already mentioned, were regulated by his doubt for his 

 safety. From this it appears that when not pressed by 

 hounds foxes will merely jog on at a moderate pace and 

 will only increase it in order to keep at a convenient 

 distance from their canine adversaries ; and I have very 

 little doubt but that is their general custom. Nimrod 

 was* of the same opinion. He observes " It is the 

 nature of all game to fly in proportion as it is pressed 

 in flight. The fox before the slow hound is, I should 

 say, nine times in ten not a yard further ahead than he 

 would be before the quick one, having reason to believe 

 (and I here speak from my experience) foxes regulate 

 their speed by the cry of hounds/' I shall recur to 

 this subject in a future chapter on the comparative 

 speed of hounds of past and present times. 



As a proof to what state the domestication of the fox 



