HUNTING LORE. 271 



after being therein sevl. minutes apparently." 

 In April, 1769, he hunted four days, and on 

 every occasion the fox treed. April 7th, " Dog 

 fox killed, ran an hour & treed twice." April 

 nth, "Went a fox hunting and took a fox 

 alive after running him to a Tree — brot him 

 home." April 12th, " Chased the above fox 

 an hour & 45 minutes when he treed again 

 after which we lost him." April 13 th, 

 " Killed a dog fox after treeing him in 35 

 minutes." 



Washington continued his fox-hunting until, 

 in the spring of 1775, the guns of the min- 

 utemen in Massachusetts called him to 

 the command of the Revolutionary soldiery. 

 When the eight weary years of campaigning 

 were over, he said good-by to the war-worn 

 veterans whom he had led through defeat and 

 disaster to ultimate triumph, and became 

 once more a Virginia country gentleman. 

 Then he took up his fox-hunting with as 

 much zest as ever. The entries in his journal 

 are now rather longer, and go more into de- 

 tail than formerly. Thus, on December 12th, 

 1785, he writes that after an early breakfast 

 he went on a hunt and found a fox at half 

 after ten, " being first plagued with the dogs 

 running hogs," followed on his drag for some 

 time, then ran him hard for an hour, when 

 there came a fault; but when four dogs 

 which had been thrown out rejoined the pack 

 they put the fox up afresh, and after fifty 

 minutes' run killed him in an open field, 

 • every Rider & every Dog being present at 



