BREAKING UP EARTHS 73 



Masters of hounds are usually desirous to promote 

 the sport of their neighbours, especially if by so doing 

 they can augment their own; the jealousy which 

 existed in former days is exploded. Those who are 

 most intimately acquainted with the habits of the fox 

 are aware that breaking up or finally closing the earths 

 will not cause the foxes to leave their accustomed 

 woodlands if they be kept quiet. It is when they are 

 disturbed by rabbit shooters and cur dogs at the com- 

 mencement of the breeding season that they will seek 

 repose in more peaceful quarters. The difference in 

 point of stoutness, stamina, and wildness between 

 stub-bred foxes and those which are half-domesticated 

 is well known, and any master of hounds would not, I 

 conceive, hesitate in making the election with which he 

 would prefer to have his country stocked. Even if they 

 were not so numerous, thirty brace of good wild, flying 

 foxes would afford more sport than treble the number 

 of bad ones. In case that cordial arrangement could 

 not be effected, if the main earths were to be broken up 

 in the centre of the country it would soon be decided if 

 the practice were good or not, and in that case there 

 would be no risk of driving them into another hunt. It 

 has been contended that foxes so treated would die 

 from want of shelter, and that the cubs while very young 

 would be liable to fall victims to hawks and other birds 

 of prey ; on the latter point not so much so as the 

 young leverets; and on the other, when it is observed 

 that in the Oakley country they are all stub bred, and 

 in other countries they are partially so, that objection 

 is confuted. 



I must now quote a few lines from that great 

 authority on hunting, Beckford, who, it will be seen, 

 had an idea of the plan which I have been advocating. 

 He says : "I am not certain that earths are the safest 

 places for foxes to breed in ; for frequently, when 

 poachers cannot dig them, they will catch the young 

 foxes in trenches dug at the mouth of the hole, which I 

 believe they call 'tunning' them." 



