FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



There is a charm about these early morning 

 hunts that the " He abeds " know nothing of. 

 As you leave home the air is still and cool, and 

 the dew lies heavily upon the grass. The birds 

 are singing as if they would burst their throats, 

 and there are rabbits hopping about where you 

 would never dream of seeing them later in the 

 day. Everything has a feeling of freshness, and 

 the clean scent of the earth seems to permeate the 

 air. Feeble as are our own olfactory organs 

 as compared with those of a hound, an early 

 morning walk will convince anybody that the 

 various scents of a countryside are more apparent 

 before the sun rises than after. It must be 

 obvious, therefore, than an early morning meet 

 is an advantage to hounds, and must result in a 

 quicker find, and better sport. The work is less 

 tiring, too, to both men and hounds, for after 

 sunrise the air becomes close and hot, and although 

 as " The Master of Game" tells us, " hunters 

 eat little and sweat always," perspiring up a 

 steep fell breast on a warm spring morning is not 

 exactly an enticing job. Any animal passing through 

 the dew soaked grass in the fields leaves a plain 

 trail behind it, and we have more than once 

 seen the broad furrow made by an otter in the 

 long grass, showing where lyUtra had cut across a 

 bend of the Viver. When you see this hounds 

 can run the drag like smoke, and yet folks tell you 

 that there is no advantage to be gained by fore- 

 going the late " love and lunch" business and 

 substituting for it an early meet. 



Turning to the more sordid side of fell-hunting, 

 i.e., the expense, which in these days of strikes 

 and heavy taxation has to be considered by every- 

 one who is not a profiteer, a man who is content 

 to turn out on foot, and who really loves hounds 



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