to keep beneath his master's chair, to a share of 

 a dried wedder's skin, which, with the wool upper- 

 most and unshorn, served all the purposes of a 

 Bristol hearth-rug. 



They had gradually ascended very high, and 

 now found themselves on a mountain ridge, over- 

 hanging a glen of great depth, but extremely 

 narrow. Here the sportsmen had collected, with 

 an apparatus which would have shocked a mem- 

 ber of the Pytcheley Hunt ; for, the object being 

 the removal of a noxious and destructive animal, 

 as well as the pleasures of the chase, poor Rey- 

 nard was allowed much less fair play than when 

 pursued in form through an open country. The 

 strength of his habitation, however, and the nature 

 of the ground by which it was surrounded on all 

 sides, supplied what was wanting in the courtesy 

 of his pursuers. The sides of the glen were 

 broken banks of earth and rocks of rotten stone, 

 which sunk sheer down to the little winding stream 

 below, affording here and there a tuft of scathed 

 brush-wood or a patch of furze. Along the edges 

 of this ravine, which, as we have said, was very 

 narrow, but of profound depth, the hunters on 

 horse and foot ranged themselves ; almost every 

 farmer had with him at least a brace of large and 



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