LETTER X. 109 



and except where he has some very small spinies or 

 gorse coverts to draw, from which a fox cannot get away 

 without being seen — ^^r^ he had better give his fox every 

 opportunity of finding the hounds before they find him, 

 or the chances are, that he will be chopped before well 

 upon his legs. 



In windy weather foxes as well as dogs are most sleepy, 

 and on such days they may easily be caught napping. 

 I was once drawing a very thin plantation on the downs, 

 in fact just letting the hounds run through it, on our 

 line to other coverts, when, looking forward, I saw a fox 

 curled up fast asleep under a low stunted fir tree, and the 

 hounds nearly all round him. Although going down the 

 wind he had not heard our approach, and fortunately the 

 hounds had not winded him in his kennel. Calling them 

 immediately to one side, as if to leave the place, I turned 

 short round, and gave the fox a cut with my whip before 

 he jumped up. The hounds, however, soon caught sight 

 of him, and a proper race we had for about fifteen mi- 

 nutes before he was pulled down, on the open downs, 

 without a fence. There were some severe falls in this 

 short space of time, for it requires as good a hand and as 

 good nerves to ride well over open downs as it does to 

 cross a vale country. Some of our hard riding vale gen- 

 tlemen got to themselves astqnisliing falls, without 

 knowing why or wherefore. The fact was, they had 

 pumped the wind out of their horses at starting, and 

 then meeting with a few old cart tracks across the down, 

 barely visible before they could pull up, the consequences 

 might be easily anticipated, particularly with horses not 

 accustomed to such crossings. 



