THE HUNTED FOX in 



The modern system of foxhunting has had a 

 marked effect on the foxes in several ways. Careful 

 preservation makes the English Midland fox less wary 

 and shy than the Welsh or Scotch fox, and a fairly 

 experienced Leicestershire fox is almost impossible to 

 head. He will thread his way through a crowd of 

 horsemen and carriages rather than be baulked of his 

 point. I once saw a fox run down a hedgerow on 

 the other side of which was a big field of horsemen. 

 He was not a yard away and I could easily have 

 touched him with the thong of my whip. Of course 

 several people shouted, but he ran right along the 

 whole line, near half a mile in length at this point, 

 and turning sharp through a hole in the fence, crossed 

 the road behind us. Now I think that it would be 

 impossible to see a fox do this in a country where he 

 is an outlaw. A fox, if I may put it in that way, is 

 far less affected by being hunted than by the care 

 taken for his preservation. Only I think that an often- 

 hunted fox puts a much longer distance between him- 

 self and a modern pack and a quick huntsman than 

 he did when hounds pottered after him. I am not 

 sure that the old-fashioned style was not more fatal to 

 the foxes than the new, for a stout fox once started 

 seldom stays till he reaches his point. Goosey, the 

 Belvoir huntsman, who begged leave to state that the 



