4 



every and any animal — from the pole-cat and the 

 badger to the deer — which could show sport was hunted by 

 hounds. They, however, in many instances, were employed 

 not so much for the purpose of killing or running the game, 

 as for finding it and bringing it in view, when it was either 

 coursed by other hounds, or dogs, till then in the leash, or 

 shot with bow and arrow. In the eleventh and twelfth 

 centuries it was impossible to follow hounds as we do now, 

 owing to the extensive woodlands in which travelling off the 

 beaten track or " rides," was a matter of time and difficulty. 

 Amongst the animals hunted in the manner mentioned was 

 the fox, and in the very first book on hunting ever written 

 (between 1406-13)—" The Master of the Game," by Edward, 

 second Duke of York — we learn : 



" The fox is a common beast, and, therefore, I need not tell of his 

 making, and there be but few gentlemen who have not seen some. 

 He hath many such conditions as the wolf, for the vixen of the fox 

 bears as long as the bitch of the wolf bears her whelps. Sometimes 

 more, sometimes less, save that the vixen fox whelped under the earth 

 deeper than doth the bitch of the wolf. . . . With great trouble men 

 can take a fox, especially the vixen when she is with whelps, for when 

 she is with whelps, and is heavy, she always keeps near her hole, for 

 sometimes she whelpeth in a false hole, and sometimes in great burrows, 

 and sometimes in hollow trees, and therefore she draweth always near 

 her burrow, and if she hears anything annon she goeth therein before 

 the hounds can get to her. She is a false beast, and as malicious as a 

 wolf. The hunting for a fox is fair for the good cry of hounds that 

 follow him so nigh and with so good a will. Always they scent of him, 

 for he flies through the thick wood, and also he stinketh evermore. 

 And he will scarcely leave a covert when he is therein, he taketh not 

 to the plain (open) country, for he trusteth not in his running neither 

 in his defence, for he is too feeble, and if he does, it is because he is 

 forced to by the strength of men and hounds. And he will always hold 

 a covert, and if he can only find a briar to cover himself with, he will 

 cover himself with that. When he sees that he cannot last, then he 

 goes to earth, the nearest he can find which he knoweth well, and then 

 men may dig him out and take him, if it is easy digging, but not among 

 the rocks. 



He then proceeds to tell us how the fox should be coursed 

 with greyhounds. This, however, cannot be called by any 

 stretch of the imagination foxhunting. " Cecil," in his 



