THE HUNTED FOX AND HIS WILES 159 



round them, there ! " he shouts, and so has ended 

 many a good chase in the last three months. 



But, if horses be not done to a turn, I myself 

 would like to see the pack make a fairer ending ; 

 the sportsmen who are up to offer their services to 

 stand and view a fox away and help to stop hounds 

 from the fresh one, nay, even to offer the use of their 

 nags to the servants, if the hard-worked steeds of 

 the establishment are more blown than their own. 



I remember when I was young hearing Sir John 

 Power, who hunted the Kilkenny hounds for so long, 

 declare that in Ireland they did not understand stick- 

 ing to their hunted fox like they did in England. 

 " Over here," he said, " every one is mad for another 

 gallop, and ready to holloa a fresh fox away. Half of 

 them do not care a sixpence about hounds getting their 

 fox ; they'd much sooner get their ride." Sir John was 

 no doubt a great authority, but my idea is that not 

 many people try to discern the difference between 

 fresh and hunted foxes, which, as I have observed, is 

 not such a very easy matter. 



I know of no subject that calls forth such strange 

 variety of opinion as the appearance of even a fresh 

 fox when he is viewed in covert or going away from it. 

 " Biggest fox that ever was seen," says one gentleman, 

 who sees Reynard with fur erect from rage and fear 

 bounce over the covert fence. " Long, lean, greyhound 

 sort of fox," another says, who sees him fairly in his 

 stride slipping smoothly along a field away. " Little 

 bit of a vixen, I should say," remarks a third, viewing 

 him across a road with the moisture on his close-lying 

 fur a few minutes later. Every other man has a 



