LANDOWNERS, ETC., AND FOXHUNTING. 67 



may become in the end what he was first repre- 

 sented to be, though when coming into the country, 

 he may have fully determined to preserve foxes. 

 All this trouble is often the outcome of the lack of a 

 little courtesy on the part of the very people whose 

 sport he has the power to spoil, which is surely a 

 mistaken policy on their part. 



I have myself known this very thing happen. A 

 City man took a large shooting in the centre of a 

 hunting country. A report was spread about that 

 he did not intend to have any foxes in his coverts, 

 which was quite untrue. His neighbours, who were 

 hunting people, did not call on him, and shot 

 hundreds of his pheasants as soon as they came 

 •over the border. He then acted up to his "made-up " 

 character, and had twenty foxes destroyed on his 

 shooting in less than twelve months. After a couple 

 •of seasons of more than a "scarcity" of foxes, the 

 master met him, and after things had been explained 

 on both sides, they made friends, and his coverts 

 were afterwards always a sure find. The whole un- 

 pleasantness might easily have been avoided if a 

 little good fellowship had been shown to the lessee 

 •of the shooting when he first came inio the country. 



One thing that many gamekeepers, who come into 

 a hunting country from elsewhere, are very fond of 

 doing is to kill the vixen wh^n the cubs are but a 

 few weeks old, and feed them at the mouth of the 

 •earth. It is the vixen that teaches the little cabs to 



