THE EARTH-STOPPER 103 



much an object of execration among the lower orders, 

 as the acred vulpecide is in the higher circles, with the 

 disagreeable addition of moving among men accus- 

 tomed to speak their minds without the gloss of courtly 

 phraseology. " Who shot the fox 1 " is an exclamation 

 that has sent many a skulking vagabond out of the 

 public-house, when a group of honest rustics have 

 been exulting over a day's sport. Indeed, the lower 

 orders set an example well worthy the imitation of 

 many who call themselves their superiors in their 

 respect for the fox. They look upon him as a sort 

 of privileged animal. He even seems to shed a sort of 

 lustre over those in any way connected with him. 

 Ask the first people you meet in a village where the 

 constable lives, and they either can't or won't tell 

 you, but ask where the man lives " wot stops the fox 

 earths," and they will not only tell you, but accompany 

 you to the door. This is as it should be, and long 

 may it continue so. It is this that gets Earth-stoppers 

 — it is this that makes men nervous and fidgetty 

 in their beds, lest they oversleep themselves, and 

 very possibly causes them to bolt master reynard's 

 door before he has left the house. They are anxious 

 for the sport themselves, and anxious for the amuse- 

 ment of the country at large. They feel that the 

 honours of the day are greatly dependent on them, 

 and are correspondingly alive to their duties. 



Mr. Daniel, in his " Rural Sports," says, " The fox 

 knows how to ensure safety, by providing himself 

 with an asylum, w^hich he either does by dispossessing 

 the badger, or digs the earth himself; in either case 

 it is so contrived as to afford the best security to 

 the inhabitants by being situated under hard ground, 

 the roots of trees, &c. and is, besides, furnished by the 

 fox with proper outlets, through which he may escape 

 from every quarter; here he retires from pressing 

 dangers, and here brings up his young ; so that the 

 fox is not a wanderer, but lives in a settled domestic 



