194 ON ARTIFICIAL FOX-EARTHS 



but we noticed that the foxes invariably ran up 

 past the house to the grove behind the stables, 

 where, it is needless to say, they found no open 

 door. The hole which led down into the old drain 

 was in a little-frequented spot in a patch of 

 ground completely covered to the depth of some 

 inches with dried beech-leaves, and had never been 

 noticed before ; it had probably been made years 

 ago, was lightly stopped with clods of earth and 

 forgotten. The old drain formed a snug and very 

 complete earth when this postern door had been 

 cleared ; but it was curious that I never found any 

 feathers, bones, or fur, or any billets of foxes near 

 the drain, though they were to be seen in abundance 

 in the little grove on the other side of the farm road. 

 No more delightful description of a fox's earth, or, 

 rather, of a " head of earths," is to be found than 

 Charles Kingsley's in the famous paper, A Concert in 

 a Pine Wood. May I be forgiven for quoting it? — 



" Beneath yon tir some hundred yards away standeth, or, rather, 

 lieth, for it is on dead, flat ground, the famous castle of Malepartius, 

 which beheld the base murder of Lampe, the hare, and many a seely 

 soul beside. 



"I know it well: a patch of sand heaps mingled with great holes 

 amid the twining for roots : ancient home of the last wild beasts. And 

 thither unto Malepartius safe and strong, trots Eeineke, where he hopes 

 to be snug among the labyrinthian windings, and innumerable starting 

 holes of his balliura, covert way, and donjon keep. Full blown with 

 self-satisfaction he trots, lifting his toes delicately and carrying his 

 brush aloft, as full of cunning and conceit as that world-famous ancestor 

 of his, whose deeds of unchivalry were the delight, if not the model, 

 of knight and Kaiser, lady and burgher, in the Middle Age. Suddenly 

 he halts at the great gate of Malepartius, examines it with his nose : 

 goes on to a postex'n : examines that also, and then another and another. 



