THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 245 



practice Is permitted, as that of capping for the death of 

 a fox, it is notorious, that a kill is not unfrequently 

 accomplished by a little more mobbing than might 

 otherwise be held defensible. In like manner, where 

 there is a proportionate interest in his life, an earth will 

 be accidentally left open, or drawn, after it has been 

 stopped by the keeper, whose next fee may depend upon 

 his rescue.* This has been the case, where the earth- 

 stoppmg is not performed by the gamekeeper ; as the 

 stopper, who would, for such an occurrence, forfeit his 

 ticket, would be the only loser ; but without entering, 

 at the present moment, into the separate consideration 

 of matters connected with the earth stopping, and 

 viewing only the reprehensible parts in the effects of the 

 anomalies I have described, it is evident that they are 

 the result of a want of foresight ; an absence of due 

 consideration in those with whom they originated, 

 rather than of any organization of wrong principles. 

 Keflection upon the policy of these regulations, brings 



* The view halloos of tliis fraternity must be regarded witli caution, 

 at the time when a fox is sinking within the precincts of tlieir range ; 

 more especially if the run has been a ring, and the fox has led the chase 

 back to the domain whence he was routed, and where he will repay the 

 trouble of a keeper in doing his utmost to mislead the hounds, that he 

 may live to fight another day. At the same time that the said keeper is 

 venting curses upon his depredations, and invoking his destruction by all 

 the powers of earth or air. It is a new feature in the records of fox-hunt- 

 ing—this accusing gamekeepers of an over tenderness towards the wily 

 animal ; but did not a shower of gold procure for Jupiter free access to the 

 brazen towers of the secluded Danae 1 One fox may live to be worth his 

 weight to his guardians. Once, and only once, within my memory, the 

 experiment of a bagman was hazarded in a place of unenviable notoriety 

 for blanks ; but the trick was, as usual, too palpable ; hounds disdained 

 the alien carcass easily subdued, and the speculation failed. 



