NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



the ploughing, and scent is poor and catchy. In five 

 minutes they have run through the plantations through 

 which their hunted fox passed. They plunge into the 

 woodland again and are hidden from view. Five 

 minutes later, and the beginning of the end comes. 

 Once more from the covert there emerges that little 

 reddish brown figure which we have seen twice before. 

 It creeps wearily out on to the plough for a hundred 

 yards, and then there is once more a hubbub of yells 

 from the foot-people. Everybody has caught sight of 

 the chase. Almost in the same instant a crash of 

 hound music comes from the covert, and the pack 

 issues into the open again. They seem fresh enough, 

 while the little, draggled, weary figure out there upon 

 the middle of the ploughing can now scarce lift one 

 leg after another. You may have seen many a well- 

 hunted fox ; never have you set eyes upon a more 

 beaten one than that before you. The tillage rises a 

 little in the centre ; it is all open ground, and the end of 

 the chase is in full view of every one, mounted or on 

 foot. Yet beaten, wearied to death, utterly hopeless 

 as he must now be, the hunted creature steals, with 

 an invincible determination, stiffly forward. 



For a little way the pack follows steadily upon the 

 line, gaining fast ; suddenly a leading hound views 

 a hundred yards in front the beaten fox. He raises his 

 voice in frantic delight ; the rest of the pack in turn 

 catch sight of their prey, and now, ravening together, 

 they dash forward, with a crash of voices, with renewed 

 pace and vigour. The fox knows now that the end 

 is very near, yet he still holds his head straight and 

 presses on. The sight, even to the hardened fox- 

 hunter, is almost a pathetic one. Here is no friendly 

 ditch, no bush, no shelter of any kind, where the hunted 

 creature may set himself up at the last and die at least 



82 



