THE DIGGING OF FOXES 145 



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upon the earth, and let them work for him. It is the blood that will do 

 them most good, and may be serviceable to the hounds, to the horses, 

 and to yourself. Digging a fox is cold work, and may require a gallop 

 afterwards, to warm you all again. Before you do this, if there be any 

 other earths in the cover, they should be stopped, lest the fox should go 

 to ground again. 



Let your huntsman try all around, and let him be perfectly satisfied 

 that the fox is not gone on, before you try an earth : for want of this 

 precaution, I dug three hours to a terrier, that lay all the time at a rabbit. 

 There was another circumstance, which I am not likely to forget ' that 

 I had twenty miles to ride home afterwards? A fox sometimes runs over 

 an earth, and does not go into it : he sometimes goes in, and does not 

 stay : he may find it too hot, or may not like the company that he meets 

 with there. I make no doubt that he has good reasons for everything 

 he does, though we are not always acquainted with them. 



Huntsmen, when they get near the fox, will sometimes put a hound 

 in to draw him. This is, however, a cruel operation, and seldom answers 

 any other purpose than to occasion the dog a bad bite, the fox's head 

 generally being towards him ; besides, a few minutes' digging will render 

 it unnecessary. If you let the fox first seize your whip, the hound will 

 draw him more readily. 1 



You should not encourage badgers in your woods : they make strong 

 earths, which will be expensive and troublesome to you, if you stop them ; 

 or fatal to your sport, if you do not. You, without doubt, remember 

 an old Oxford toast : 



Hounds stout, and horses healthy, 

 Earths well stopp'd and foxes plenty. 



All, certainly, very desirable to a fox-hunter ; yet, I apprehend the earths 

 stopped to be the most necessary ; for the others, without that, would be 

 useless. Besides, I am not certain that earths are the safest places for 

 foxes to breed in ; for frequently, when poachers cannot dig them, they 

 will catch the young foxes in trenches dug at the mouth of the hole, which 

 I believe they call tunning them. A few large earths near to your house, 

 are certainly desirable, as they will draw the foxes thither, and, after a 

 long day, will sometimes bring you home. 



If foxes should have been bred in an earth which you think unsafe, 

 you had better stink them out ; that, or indeed any disturbance at the 

 mouth of the hole, will make the old one carry them off to another place. 



In open countries, foxes, when they are much disturbed, will lie at 

 earth. If you have difficulty in finding, stinking the earths will some- 



1 You may draw a fox, by fixing a piece of whip-cord, made into a noose, at the end of 

 a stick ; which, when the fox seizes, you may draw him out by. 



