APPENDIX. 



143 



for yards in every direction, and the foxes lost 

 their former sense of security, and shunned their 

 hitherto happy home. 



The owner tried to remedy matters by laying 

 part of this covert, i.e., cutting the stems of the 

 bushes half through, and then bending down 

 the heads, but this was not satisfactory ; most 

 of the heads died, the foxes never took to this 

 part, and the hounds could scarcely draw it ; 

 and as time after time we sat in our saddles 

 and saw them with difficulty trying to tread 

 their way through the tangled mass, with 

 nothing but rabbits scuttling across the rides, 

 one felt it was indeed " Ichabod," and that the 

 glory (as well as the foxes) had departed. 



Verb. sap. Never cut a ride in a natural 

 gorse, no matter how large ; it is better to find 

 a fox in it, though it may take some time to 

 get him away, than to draw it blank ! 



The more you can make an artificial gorse 

 resemble the natural one the better, so that it 

 is an excellent plan if there are many s'orse 

 bushes about in a suitable situation — a rough 

 piece of ground on the sunny and sheltered side 

 of a hill, if possible interspersed with boulders 

 and hillocks, and without rabbits — to assist 



