324 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



wide open in the vague expectation of a pheasant drop- 

 ping into it. 



A letter has been forwarded to me, signed " An Old 

 Foxhunter," part of which I will transcribe, although it 

 may be calculated to draw forth another shot from Mr. 

 Ramrod : — 



" I have at this moment in my eye a keeper of this 

 description, a fellow who sometimes shows a litter of 

 cubs the first time the hounds draw his coverts, but after 

 that, if hounds run into them, or draw them unexpect- 

 edly, there is no more symptoms of a fox than if the 

 animal had never existed. Let the fixture be somewhere 

 for the express purpose of drawing this man's coverts, 

 and there is scarcely a more sure find within the precincts 

 of the hunt ; no danger of changing foxes, however- — no 

 second fox. Now, really, as a matter of curiosity, I 

 shall be greatly obliged if * Scrutator' will do me the 

 favour to enlighten me as to this fellow's plan of opera- 

 tions. We don't hear of his importing foxes by the 

 rail ; in the old coaching days (for I have known him 

 long) he did not have them down by those conveyances. 

 Does he borrow a fox of his neighbour ? does he drag 

 them to his coverts ? if he did we should sometimes find 

 a brace of foxes on his ground. Does he bottle, or 

 rather barn his foxes, like a good housekeeper, * for use 

 when wanted V In fact, what does he do ?" 



The trick practised by this old artful keeper is a stale 

 one to me, as I have often known it adopted by these 

 velveteen gentry. From the facts above stated, there 

 can be very little doubt that this man is a regular fox 

 destroyer, and the more dangerous because he is appa- 

 rently a fox preserver. He attempts to disarm suspicion. 



