FEBRUARY 37 



of all means of cleanliness, and the result must have been 

 even more distressing to the prisoner than it was to its 

 occasional human visitors. 



For my own part, wild animals are interesting to me 

 only in their native haunts ; but those who care for pets 

 find that badgers, rightly housed and cared for, are most 

 companionable and docile creatures. The objection felt 

 by the true lover of nature to keeping them in captivity 

 is similar to that which applies to keeping birds in cages. 

 In both cases the animal must be debarred from exercis- 

 ing the faculty in which it excels : the bird shall not fly ; 

 the badger shall not dig. These are the cardinal prison 

 rules fatal, in my opinion, to any satisfaction on the part 

 of an understanding jailer. And what a wonderful digger 

 is the badger ! Twenty years ago I received a consign- 

 ment of four one August morning an old sow and three 

 cubs. They had travelled all the way from Hampshire ; 

 the weather was intensely hot ; the whole party seemed 

 in the last stage of exhaustion. In fact, the old sow 

 appeared to be on the point of death, lying motionless 

 on her side with half-closed eyes. I had them put into a 

 loose-box, with a plentiful supply of food, animal and 

 vegetable, locked the door and took away the key, so that 

 the beasts should have four-and-twenty hours to recruit 

 before being turned into the woods. Next morning, when 

 I returned, the place was in a fine mess. Much of the 

 food had disappeared, and so had the badgers. The 

 cobble pavement had been deeply dug out in several 

 places. Baffled in that direction by the stone- wall founda- 

 tions, the old sow had attacked the door, a sound and 

 strong one, bitten a round hole through it, and made 

 clean tracks. Eventually she took up her quarters in a 



