234 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



liis own station of life, but the respectable yeomen, inn- 

 keepers, and tradesmen, all take delight in rearing a 

 young hound, and returning him in condition to do 

 credit to his walk. The farmer will say, that he has 

 lost some scores of fowls by the foxes ; but he will 

 add, in the same breath, that foxes have kept down his 

 enemies, the rabbits, and that he does not grudge the 

 value of fowls, averaging about eighteen pence a piece, 

 considering all that there is to set against such losses to 

 the score of the hunting. When farmers are satisfied 

 that there is every desire to avoid wilful damage, they 

 are seldom so churlish as to grumble at that which is 

 accidental, I may say incidental, to the sport in which 

 they may largely participate. If you once commence a 

 system of regular compensation, however desirable it 

 may be in individual cases, the yearly accumulation of 

 such demands would ultimately balance the account of 

 the national debt. It would, perhaps, require as much 

 as would maintain the hunting establishment, to satisfy 

 claims for damage, supported by sufficient evidence, 

 against the foxes ; but as it is well known that the fox 

 is held responsible for everything less than a jackass, 

 which may be " lost, stolen, or strayed," the depredations 

 of dogs and vermin, and also of still more systematic 

 thieves, might be committed with impunity, under the 

 shelter of the indemnifying fund provided by the Hunt. 

 It is, indeed, hard, that Widow Thrifty should sustain 

 the loss of a whole brood of turkeys, or that the pains 



