FOX-HUNTING 



pened to be scarce therein, he might temporarily stock the 

 country without reproach : — 



'Mr. Termor's excellent pack is come, or coming at the 

 end of this month (December), from his seat in Oxfordshire to 

 Epsom, for the purpose of hunting there during the remainder 

 of the season. The gentlemen of Surrey expect much sport, 

 as Mr. Fermor will turn out a great number of bagged 

 foxes.' 



When Squire Osbaldeston hunted in Suffolk, season 1822-3, 

 Mr. E. H. Budd used to buy half-grown foxes for him from 

 Hopkins in Tottenham Court Road, at thirty shillings a brace, 

 and send them down in a covered cart, ten or twelve brace at 

 a time. 



It was very usual to turn out a bagman for a day's sport ; 

 and such a fox often gave a much better run than the practice 

 deserved. On 18th December 1905 the Master of the Chester 

 Harriers had a bag fox turned out in Common Wood at a 

 quarter-past twelve : he was given five minutes' law, was run 

 to ground at Pick Hill, was bolted, and thereafter stood up 

 before hounds till dark, when ' hounds were called off by the 

 New Mills near Whitchurch. The whole chase is computed to 

 be upwards of forty miles as the crow flies, and with scarcely 

 a check.' Mention of bag foxes recalls a comical story told of 

 Tom Hills, the famous Old Surrey huntsman. He was carrying 

 home, in the capacious pocket of his blouse, a fox he had been 

 sent to buy in Leadenhall market. Stopped by a highwayman 

 on Streatham Common, he responded to the demand for his 

 money by bidding his assailant help himself from the pocket 

 which contained the fox : and while the highwayman was 

 bewailing his severely bitten fingers. Hills made his escape. 



Long runs are frequently reported in the Sporting Magazine 

 during the first decades of the nineteenth century. On Friday, 

 7th December 1804, Mr. Corbet's hounds found near Welles- 

 bourne pastures, ran their fox for three hours with one five 

 minutes' check, and killed — nay, ' most delightfully ran into ' 

 him at Weston, about a mile from Broadway : a sixteen-mile 



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