THE FOX AND HIS NATURE 6^ 



The hunting for a fox is fair for the good cry of 

 the hounds ^ that follow him so nigh and with so 

 good a will. Always they scent of him, for he 

 flies through the thick wood and also he stinketh 

 evermore. And he will scarcely leave a covert 

 when he is therein, he taketh not to the plain 

 (open) country for he trusteth not in his running 

 neither in his defence, for he is too feeble, and if 

 he does, it is because he is (forced to) by the 

 strength of men and hounds. And he will always 

 hold to covert, and if he can only find a briar to 

 cover himself with, he will cover himself with 

 that. When he sees that he cannot last, then he 

 goeth to earth the nearest he can find which he 

 knoweth well and then men may dig him out and 

 take him, if it is easy digging, but not among the 

 rocks.^ If greyhounds give him many touches and 



^ G. de F., p. 72, says, " because the hounds hunt him closely." 

 2 Our MS. only gives this one chapter on the fox, while 

 Gaston Phœbus has another: Comment on doit chassier et 

 prendre le renard. In this he gives directions as to earth- 

 stopping, and taking him in pursenets, and smoking him out 

 with "orpiment and sulphur and nitre or saltpetre." He says 

 January, February, and March are the best months for hunt- 

 ing, as the leaf is off the trees and the coverts are clearer, so 

 that the hounds have more chance of seeing the fox and hunt 

 him closer. He says that one-third of the hounds should be 

 put in to draw the covert, and the others in relays should guard 

 the boundaries and paths, to be slipped as required. Although 

 this is a Frenchman's account of fox-hunting, we have no reason 

 to believe that the fox was treated at that period better by 

 English sportsmen, for until comparatively recent times the 

 fox was accounted vermin, and any means by which his death 



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