188 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



and with the exception of the Duke of Sutherland's, the 

 Earls Stamford and Warrington's, and Bradford's, 

 Lords Ward's and Wrottesley's, Mr. Gifford's and Mr. 

 Moseley's, are small. They are most zealous preservers 

 of foxes, and, without asserting that any of the landed 

 proprietors are at all hostile to fox-hunting, they are 

 very fond of their game. There is a great abundance of 

 rabbits, for which steel-traps are constantly set, and 

 many a fox is sacrificed by that means ; and I know 

 that at one period the annual destruction was so ex- 

 tensive as to render it imperative to procure many brace 

 of cubs to turn down. That they should afford much 

 sport could not be expected, and the only remedy that 

 can be suggested is to prevail on the owners of the 

 coverts where the rabbits are abundant to have wires 

 set instead of steel-traps. 



I do not intend to stigmatise any of the landed pro- 

 prietors in the Albrighton Hunt with the unsportsman- 

 like, unneighbourly practice of wilfully killing the foxes. 

 I am quite certain, as a body, they are as zealous in the 

 good cause as in any other country ; and some years ago 

 there was one worthy individual who certainly exceeded 

 all others I ever met with in his affection for the vulpine 

 race. This person was an honest miller, one George 

 Burgess, who lived on a farm belonging to the Enville 

 estate, upon which, close to the house, there was a gorse 

 covert in which a litter of cubs was invariably bred, and 

 they were as regularly fed by the miller as any of his 

 family. He was not only a very good friend to the 

 foxes but a very hospitable man withal ; pork-pies, 

 bread and cheese, and ale, were always provided for 

 those who liked to partake thereof. One day, when 

 Sir Bellingham Graham was drawing the gorse, I called 

 for some lunch, when the hounds found a fox, and 

 hastening to depart Mrs. Burgess exclaimed, " Oh, 

 they have found, but I hope they wonH kill him.'^ The 

 last words were expressed with that energy which pro- 

 claimed that they came from the heart. He ran a short 

 way and returned, by which time the earth was un- 



