86 THE FOX 



As will be seen later, artificial earths are some- 

 times necessary evils. But the making and care of 

 coverts is one of the great means of sport. 



How much we owe to the small coverts of 

 Leicestershire, which link together such delightful 

 stretches of grass ! It is quite clear that foxes, when 

 hunted, will not go into a country where there are no 

 refuges. They may, and indeed do, go foraging where 

 there are no fox haunts or shelters, but they do not 

 run to them as a rule. 



I can only recall two instances, in my own ex- 

 perience or in reading, of foxes travelling except with 

 some covert or refuge in their minds. Once many 

 years ago, with the Southwold, I recollect a fox going 

 away with five couple of hounds from Tumby Wood. 

 The Master was with them, one whipper-in, and the 

 late Rev. Edward Rawnsley, a rider to hounds who 

 had fine hands and good judgment. He was seldom 

 left when hounds ran. The line was over the fen 

 country, flat, open grass-fields, divided by enormous 

 drains. The fox ran the bridges made for the cattle 

 to pass over, and his followers jumped the draw- rails 

 which divided the bridges from the fields. The fox 

 was killed on the outskirts of some farm buildings. 



But doubtless he was like that fox in the late 

 Duke of Beaufort's time that disappeared near some 



