390 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



prowling about farmyards at night — unless rabbits 

 arc very plentiful in liis locality — and robbing the 

 henroosts ; and when found by hounds has recourse 

 to dodging tricks^ and rings round covert to foil them. 



It is related of a famous old Dorsetshire fox, 

 which had beaten Mr. Farquarson's hounds for 

 several seasons, and had obtained the sobriquet of 

 Buttermere Jack, from being generally found in a 

 large covert of that name, that on hearing the 

 tramp of a horse near the wood, or the slamming of 

 a gate, he was off immediately, gaining thereby such 

 an advantage that the hounds could never overtake 

 him. One fox of this character is worth a score of 

 those so easily brought to book, after your twenty 

 or thirty minutes' burst. Ah ! that book-keeping or 

 nose-counting account is just the very thing to 

 mar sport. The thirty brace of cubs disposed of 

 somehow or other before the 1st of November 

 would appear to argue that the pack which could 

 accomplish such a feat must be, as good spirits are 

 said to be, ^' above proof;" whereas ten couples of 

 harriers would as easily perform the same act. 



It is universally admitted that good people are 

 scarce — much more scarce, considering the increase 

 of population, than they ever have been since the 

 days of Noah — so are good foxes. The good ones 

 are rarely to be met with, the bad are continually 

 in our way when not wanted. In Beckford's time 

 it was not the fashion generally to advertise the 

 places at which foxhounds were to meet ; and there 

 can be no doubt that such a reservation on the part 

 of the master proved beneficial to hounds, although 



