A BADGER HUNT 161 



trial of your dog, and Mrs Butler, a tall, gaunt female, 

 would pick them out of the big cages without putting 

 a glove on. It was a gruesome sight, but no terrier was 

 thought worth keeping in those days until he or she had 

 been thoroughly entered to business of this sort. 

 Occasionally Butler would become possessed of more 

 formidable prey, such as a polecat, and that was a costly 

 luxury. Once a freshly caught badger was provided and 

 we arranged what was thought a good scheme for hunting. 

 I drove out with it in a sack to somewhere beyond Wood- 

 stock, and having got a boy to hold the pony, carried the 

 sack with the badger in it a considerable distance across 

 country and then enlarged the quarry. A drag made 

 up of the badger's bedding was meanwhile being trailed 

 towards the point where I was, and when I saw the man 

 with the drag coming I met and stopped him two or three 

 hundred yards short of where the badger had been released, 

 and had apparently made good its escape. We lifted and 

 carried the drag well away from the line and then watched 

 until presently the terriers about a dozen of them 

 came in sight, running keen as mustard; then their 

 various owners ; and when the pack threw their heads up 

 where the drag had been lifted it was really interesting 

 to see them cast and try to hit off the scent again. 



" Whativer ye de, always cast forrard," was the advice 

 given by James Pigg, of immortal memory, and someone 

 followed it on this occasion, so that at last they got on 

 the actual line, but the badger, though in his native 

 country, had not gone far, and they ran into him all too 

 soon. It was, after all, not much better than our shocking 

 fiasco with the bagged fox at Rugby. 



This may not be a pleasing story but it serves to give 

 some idea of the manners and customs of that period. 



It must not be thought that some energy was not 

 devoted to more worthy objects, and, on the whole, we 

 were not progressing badly, but the attractions of Oxford 

 are numerous indeed and it is difficult to concentrate your 

 mind on lectures and reading. 



