ON ARTIFICIAL FOX-EARTHS 191 



of it gave it an air of artificiality which I deprecated 

 always, in spite of the wonderful reputation it gained 

 for holding foxes. More to my taste is the wild bit 

 of broken ground, the little glen through which runs 

 the tiny stream, the rocky hillock, whereon the fir- 

 trees seem to find a natural footing, or the punchbowl- 

 like depression among the grassy hills, on whose slopes 

 we gather to watch the white sterns flickering and the 

 dark bushes shake. 



Surely there is pleasure to sportsmen — I speak not 

 of riders — in the quest of the wily animal, in the actual 

 search for the " little red rover," who may be here 

 to-day but away in the next parish to-morrow ; and, 

 to my mind, the ideal covert is one in which we can 

 watch something of the fierce intelligence of the pack 

 as they try for him, while if the surroundings be 

 picturesque that pleasure is surely enhanced. 



Not a mile, as the crow flies, from my writing-table 

 is a little covert which, I am happy to say, at this 

 moment contains a litter of foxes, and has a delight- 

 fully natural and sporting appearance, though the fields 

 around it are flat enough. How many, I wonder, of 

 the hundreds who have seen it drawn have ever been 

 inside those low, thorn fences ? Trees grow within 

 their bounds and among the thorn of the fences ; thus 

 it looks like an ordinary square spinney, such as that 

 the train flits by many times in half an hour when 

 speeding through the English Midlands. In reality, 

 however, the land within those fences is on a gentle 

 rise, and the gorse 'grows strong round thorn and 

 chestnut and hazel. There is an abrupt little fall in 

 the ground some fifty yards from the southern fence, 



