unusually short and badl}^ and, lastly, the dry weather 

 had induced them to go more to ground than before. 

 Every drain in the country has been inhabited by them, 

 and the present battue shooting arrangements so 

 bamboozle them, in addition to the heading and 

 badgering of cubhunting, that, in addition to lying under- 

 ground, they have laid out in the open more than I 

 ever knew them in any previous season. 



Do not be discouraged, my hunting friends, at this long 

 list of predisposing causes for our many and various 

 disappointments this season. Remember that none of 

 them are chronic. Next Autumn we may have a greater 

 average rainfall. More old foxes to start on, because 

 less have been killed. Better scent, and fewer cubs 

 badgered to death in our best coverts without being 

 afforded a chance of escape in the open. We shall 

 have the chance of preventing the continual *' gone to 

 ground" business, to which we have been treated this 

 year, by our stopping up, daring the summer, tlie drains 

 and holes, which we now know are frequented by 

 outlying foxes. 



It must not be supposed, however, that these notes 

 contain nothing but one long growl of disappointment, 

 for in truth scarce a week throughout the season has 

 passed without one little glimpse of sunshine in the 

 shape of sport reaching me, and being delightedly noted 

 down. In fact it is astonishing how persistently this 

 has been the case, except, perhaps, when that tryingly 

 intermittent frost put in its oar at Christmas, and 

 robbed the schoolboys and holiday-makers of their 

 accustomed jollities. 



It must be universally acknowledged that Mr. 

 Eeginald Corbet, in South Cheshire, has carried 

 off the palm for sport. On the grass his hounds have 

 run fast — dav after day. His small coverts enable him 

 to get away on the back of his fox, and his hounds are a 

 marvel of quickness as well as deathliness. His runs have 

 been for the most part rings, although there have been 



