LETTER XXI. 229 



as the line the hounds had taken, was towards our home 

 country, I rode straight to the kennels, as the most likely 

 place to find them. To my great delight, they had 

 arrived there before me. They had run their fox into 

 the borders of our own country, and there killed him, in 

 a cottage where he had taken refuge. The old woman 

 to whom it belonged had tried to eject the hounds with 

 a broom, but so resolved were they to have their prey, 

 that the old lady was alarmed herself, and fled, leaving 

 them in possession. Having eaten their fox, they gave 

 the old woman no further trouble, and marched off in 

 good order homewards. These particulars we learnt 

 afterwards. 



After wet and stormy nights foxes are not easily met 

 with, even where there is no scarcity of them. Much 

 also depends upon the earth-stopper. Few of them can 

 be depended upon to stop the earths at a proper hour^ 

 in wet and bad nights. This work is often done very 

 carelessly, and foxes instead of being stopped out^ are 

 stopped in. Foxes, like dogs, are very dull and sleepy 

 in windy weather. They seldom then leave their earths 

 until a late hour of the night, and sometimes not at all. 

 Often they have a supply in the larder, which prevents 

 the necessity of their wandering about in search of food, 

 and, like lazy people who have nothing to do, sleep the 

 dreary hours away. I have known foxes in bad weather 

 not move far from their earths for two or three nights 

 following, and in the clicking season this is particularly 

 the case. 



The most impudent thing I ever knew done by a fox 

 was whilst being pursued by my own hounds. He was 

 running for a large head of earths, which (as our fixture 



