178 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



be faced with an iron grating ; or, should this be con- 

 sidered too troublesome or expensive, they may, at least, 

 be guarded against the ingress of anything approaching 

 to the size of a fox, by stakes driven perpendicularly 

 in front of the entrance. To this proceeding it is not 

 likely that the proprietor will raise any tenable ob- 

 jection. 



Having in this chapter endeavoured to render an 

 account of one fox, I shall not draw for a second ; pre- 

 ferring to risk the imputation of being alow, of giving a 

 short day, and going home too early. It never was 

 my misfortune to witness a sham draw, for the sake of 

 spinning out the day, with no desire to find ; nor can I 

 conceive how any man can hunt twice with any esta- 

 blishment, liable to the suspicion of such a practice, which 

 is as unsportsmanlike as prejudicial to hounds, and the 

 general interests of the concern. There are some 

 people, it is true, who think it right to make out the 

 day, till dark ;* who cannot trust themselves to their 

 own resources, should their work be over long before 

 their dinner-time, and who would think it a sin to have 

 returned to kennel by two or three o'clock, whatever 

 may have been the sport since throwing oif at eleven. 

 Some people, by the same rule, will consider a ball 

 but ill kept up should dancing cease before daylight ; 



* I Avas talking, not long since, to a very clever huntsman — one as keen as 

 any of Lis fellows in enjoyment of the sport — on the subject of drawing for 

 a second fox, after a good run and satisfactory kill. " That is," said he, "just 

 what 1 call jmtting the beggar over the gentlemmi." The phrase struck me 

 as having a degree of force fiiUy atoning for any want of elegance in ex- 

 pression. 



