A TAME FOX 67 



may be brought, and as an original idea, I must here 

 introduce an anecdote of a tame fox kept in Shropshire 

 in Mr. Boycott's time, and also when Mr. Walter 

 Gifford had the management of the Albrighton country. 

 Nearly in the centre of the hunt at Cranmere, close to 

 the house, was a covert well known as Mr. Vickers's 

 Gorse a name given to it in consequence of its being 

 on the estate occupied by that gentleman, who in early 

 life was an excellent sportsman and a first-rate per- 

 former over a country; and although an accident 

 subsequently prevented him participating in the 

 pleasures of the chase he was not the less desirous to pro- 

 mote the sport of others. Mrs. Vickers and her niece, 

 Miss Miller, were most determined admirers of fox- 

 hunting, and generally met the hounds whenever they 

 were within reasonable distance. But Mrs. Vickers' 

 devotion to fox-hunting was not confined merely to 

 participation in the sport ; for it extended to the pro- 

 motion of it. She had a tame vixen fox chained up 

 near the house, and an artificial earth constructed for 

 the accommodation of her protegee. On the approach of 

 the 4 merry spring time ' the vixen fox was liberated 

 and allowed to roam into the gorse an indulgence 

 which she did not abuse but returned to her 

 accustomed earth in due course of time, where she 

 brought forth a litter of cubs several successive seasons. 

 These cubs, being allowed to stray off into the gorse, 

 were generally found when the hounds paid their 

 respects. I will not, however, go so far as to assert 

 that they were of much value as affording sport they 

 were too much domesticated; but the fact of the vixen 

 returning after having been liberated shows the attach- 

 ment she had for the earth to which she was 

 accustomed. 



My highly esteemed friend Captain Bo wen Da vies, 

 late of Maesycrigau in Carmarthenshire (who, alas ! has 

 been gathered to his last home), often related to me an 

 event which occurred with a tame fox which he had. 

 He kept fox-hounds at the time ; and in the summer 



