370 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



" 1^11 try hard, master, and so of course will you ; 

 and if he beats us botli he is a good un, and no 

 mistake.*'' 



This old fox, however, did contrive to beat us at 

 last; but it was a very near thing, and he never lived 

 to boast of it. He led us a tremendous dance over 

 miles of country, and, at the last, crossed a deep and 

 rapid river, over which we were obliged to seek the 

 assistance of a ferry boat to waft us and our horses. 

 This little delay saved his brush ; but he was so 

 beaten that a man breaking stones on the road above 

 the river, seeing him so completely exhausted, caught 

 him, as he told us, by the " tail,^^ when the old gen- 

 tleman turned and bit him through the leg for such 

 uncourteous treatment ; and then, crossing under a 

 gate, he reached the refuge in some rocks for which 

 he had been running, and from which he never again 

 sallied forth. 



We could relate numerous instances of coolness 

 and sang-froid exhibited by foxes when hounds were 

 in full chase after them which would prove them 

 to be very wide awake and calculating, not timid, 

 animals : and as to forcing them to leave a large 

 covert, or to pursue any course contrary to their in- 

 clinations, it will be found that eventually they suc- 

 ceed in their object, unless barred out from home or 

 outpaced by hounds. We remember the reply given 

 by the late William Codrington, who was considered 

 a second Meynell for his wonderful knowledge of 

 foxhound pedigrees as well as his own practical ex- 

 perience, to a young paccman who had expressed 

 his opinion very loudly in his presence about the 



