FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



high tops, cannot face the deeper snow on the 

 more elevated slopes, and so hounds, to use a 

 local expression " lay him in," or in other words 

 force him into the low ground. There, unless he 

 goes to earth, his shrift is likely to be short, and a 

 kill in the open is often the crowning event of 

 such a run. 



Although the majority of foxes, particularly 

 the hill-type, are more muscular than fat, one 

 occasionally comes across a specimen carrying 

 more than his share of adipose tissue. A fox 

 of this kind probably spends most of his time in 

 the midst of a plentiful food supply, and if hounds 

 happen to get on to him he does not as a rule last 

 long if the pace is fast. 



In another chapter I have made mention of a 

 fox which took refuge beneath a patch of blae- 

 berry scrub on a crag-face. Prior to reaching this 

 retreat, he had been very hard run by two and a 

 half couples of hounds, the pack having split. 

 When he was at last evicted from the crag, he 

 made a comparatively feeble effort to escape, and 

 after a short scurry, went to ground under a big 

 stone. It was the pace, coupled with his own 

 fat condition, that killed this fox. 



Certain creatures, the heron for example, when 

 pursued, lighten themselves by vomiting up their 

 food. I have never heard of a fox doing this, 

 but in ' ' The Master of Game," the oldest English 

 hunting book, it says, with regard to coursing the 

 fox : "If greyhounds give him many touches 

 and overset him, his last remedy, if he is in an 

 open country, will be that he vishiteth gladly 

 (the act of voiding excrements) so that the grey- 

 hounds should leave him for the stink of the dirt, 

 and also for the fear that he hath." 



The " Master of Game" was written between 



96 



