i 4 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



clattered down on to the stone-paved yard. 

 Eventually the fox found its way into the hands 

 of the local taxidermist, and now forms an in- 

 teresting ornament to the inside of the house 

 from which it was previously so unceremoniously 

 ejected. 



To many people a fox is merely a fox ; but 

 there are varieties of the species even in this 

 country. There is the pure-bred English variety, 

 the well-known little red rascal, and there is also the 

 well-known large North-Country fox which inhabits 

 the mountainous districts of Cumberland. All 

 British sportsmen are familiar with the name of 

 John Peel, and many of them are doubtless under 

 the impression that the hero of the popular song 

 was a hard-riding huntsman of the old school. 

 Good sportsman as he undoubtedly was, John 

 Peel invariably hunted on foot, and his hounds 

 were what is termed a trencher-fed pack ; that is 

 to say, they were, if not the property of different 

 people, at all events fed and housed by them, 

 and so, on hunting mornings, it was necessary for 

 them to be collected from the various farmhouses 

 where they were 'walked,' as it is termed in 

 hunting parlance. Thus Ranter, Ruby, Bell- 

 man, True, and Co., had to be sent back to 

 their respective homes after the day's work was 

 over, probably often without escort, and with the 

 inducement to be ' off to kennel ' of a crack from 

 the thong of a hunting-whip. 



In those days the more hilly districts were 



