HUNTING THE FOX 233 



I do not know whether the fox calculated on this, 

 but I doubt it. At all events it saves his life, and a 

 few minutes later hounds are baying round the earth. 

 ' Fifty minutes without a check,' says the timekeeper. 

 It was only forty, but thus is hunting history made. 



There are, however, many longer runs on record, 

 without counting the wonderful hunts which the fell 

 foxes in Cumberland and Westmorland, or their 

 Welsh brethren, afford. In the best of our countries 

 over the cream of the grass, with the fastest packs and 

 the quickest huntsmen behind them, foxes have been 

 known to stand for hours. I think that long runs are 

 not really rarer than they were. They could never 

 have been ordinary occurrences. So many things 

 must coincide on a single hunting day in order to 

 produce one. First there must be a scent, not neces- 

 sarily a burning scent, but one that holds. Hounds 

 must be able to drive forward and to go on. Then 

 they must find the right fox in the course of the day's 

 draw, and they must force him away early enough to 

 enable the run to be finished in daylight ; for in most 

 cases the heroes of the great runs have been found 

 after midday, when foxes are fresher and lighter than 

 in the morning. The fox should be a dog fox 

 (though one or two historic runs have been after 

 little vixens), old or of rather mature age, and one 



