126 Random RKCoi.i.:ecTiONS of the 



unless really sound in head. Is it cruel to 

 dogs to feed fifty or sixty o' them on crackers, 

 etc., in a kennel like a christian house, with a 

 clear burn flowing through it ? Is't cruel to 

 horses to buy a hundred of them, feed them 

 on five or six feeds of corn per diem, gie them 

 coats sleek as satin — to gallop them like devils 

 in a hurricane ? '^ But the fox ? He imagines 

 the delight of the fox when he escapes, getting 

 into an undigable earth just when the leading 

 hound was at his haunches ; — " Ae sic a 

 moment is enough to repay half-an-hour's 

 draggle through dirt, and he can lick himself 

 at his leisure, far away in the cranny of the 

 rocks, and come out all tosh and tidy by the 

 first dawn. Huntin' him prevents him fa'in 

 into ennui, and growing ower fat on how towdies 

 (fowls). He's no killed every time he's hunted." 



The conditions of hunting have undergone 

 man}' changes during the years that have been 

 skimmed over by the exigencies under which 

 w^e live. During the early part of this century 

 fewer labourers were engaged in the fields than 

 now, corn was mostly thrashed by hand in 

 field barns in the winter months — no steam 



