INTRODUCTION 



By 



LORD WlLIvOUGHBY DE BROKE 



lyi R. CLAPHAM is at once a naturalist and a Foxhunter. 

 ■*• ■■• He writes of sport with the keenness of a true devotee 

 and of the habits of wild animals with the authority of an acute 

 obser\'er. His book is craniiiied with information from cover 

 to cover. He begins with a chapter on the history of the Fox 

 family, and from that starting point he treats of almost every 

 aspect of Foxhimting at home and abroad. The only omission 

 that \ye can discover is the omission of any mention of horses. 

 But he gives us much compensation by taking us into his con- 

 fidence with regard to himting on foot, and shrewdly suggests 

 that all boy and girl Foxhunters should at some time be made 

 to run \^-ith the beagles, and be thoroughl}' distressed in the 

 doing of it, in the hope that they may have some sympathy with 

 their horses when they join in the mounted pursuit. It may be 

 added that a salutary lesson in the art of making the most of a 

 horse has been leamt by some of us who have been thoughtless 

 enough to ride a blown horse at a fence with a stiff binder on the 

 top of it. The thud of the horse's knee against the binder, the 

 rapidity with which the earth seems to spring up and hit us in the 

 face, and the sickening sensation of being " winded" are not 

 soon forgotten. 



Of all Mr. Clapham's chapters perhaps the most entertaining 

 is his essay on the British Red Fox. The life of the anim.al from 

 the moment he is bom is traced by the hand of one who loves him 

 and all his kind, and understands them. It is refreshing to 

 read Mr. Clapham's disposal of the popular m>i:h, even now be- 

 Heved by man}^ who have hunted for several years, that a white 

 tag to the brush is the distinctive mark of the Dog Fox. It 

 would be rather diverting to put the question " Can a \ixen 

 have a white tag ? " to each member of the field at a large meet 

 in the Midlands and see what answers one would get. Mr. 

 Clapham says the average number of cubs to a fitter is four, but 

 that nmch larger fitters are reported from time to tune. When 

 I was a boy I was taken by my father to a marl-pit near Stratford- 

 on-Avon. In the side of the pit was a large hole. A m^an put 

 his head to the mouth of the hole, and whistled. Out came 

 eleven cubs who all began to lap milk out of a trough, and then 

 turned to fighting desperately with each other over a tempting 

 plate of bones. Those who think that foxes cannot exist on 



