162 THE HUNTED FOX AND HIS WILES 



the chase, for in shrewd cunning and baffling subter- 

 fuge I conceive a hare to be infinitely more deceptive 

 than a fox." And again : " I have heard it said by men 

 who have distinguished themselves in both pursuits, 

 that the science and ingenuity required to kill a good 

 hare are even greater than those which are necessary 

 to give an account of a bad fox." 



It is perhaps the " bad fox " that of tenest displays 

 the most cunning, but the escape of many and many 

 a hero who has stood up before hounds till horses have 

 stood still, has often been due to his marvellous cunning 

 and resource. The keenest huntsman with the best 

 pack of hounds can never be sure of his fox till he has 

 him in hand, and, though they may have brought him 

 along through flocks of sheep, into which he has pur- 

 posely run, across rivers, through cattle-stain and 

 coverts, " crawling with fresh foxes," and have viewed 

 him dead beaten in the next field, it often happens 

 that all traces disappear entirely and as suddenly as 

 if he had " wanished into thin hair," as old Jorrocks 

 has it. 



My friend, of whom I made mention above, was 

 sadly bothered one day by the unaccountable dis- 

 appearance of a fox he had been hunting hard for 

 an hour. At the end we ran towards a fairly high 

 demesne wall with a road alongside it, and a view was 

 caught of our fox as we came down a slight declivity ; 

 he was getting over the wall from the road, and 

 apparently with a good deal of difficulty. The M.F.H. 

 lifted the pack and carried them through the avenue 

 gate. We were then in a somewhat narrow park of 

 sound old grass, which was bounded on the other side 



