HUNT SERVANTS. 153 



a heavy vixen is annoying, but killing one that has laid up 

 cubs is still more so. If you do not find them the poor things 

 are starved to death ; if you find them and get a cat to bring 

 them up, you do not often raise them. If the cubs are three or 

 four months old, the dog fox will sometimes provide them with 

 food and bring them up. A great deal of the success and sport 

 of a season's hunting depends on efficient and careful earth- 

 stoppers. In spite of the greatest pains and trouble a M.F.H. 

 will find himself constantly running to ground in the same 

 earth or drain. If he does get a really good man in whose 

 stop he rarely or never gets to ground, he should treasure and 

 encourage him in every way. 



COMPENSATION FOR DAMAGES DONE BY HORSEMEN 

 AND BY FOXES. 



This is a most difficult subject to treat of. As a rule, during 

 the hunting season, horsemen do but little damage beyond 

 making gaps in the fences, and occasionally hurting a field of 

 vetches or young clover seeds or winter beans. The bulk of 

 farmers are so sporting and so good-natured that they do not 

 mind. You may come across one every now and then who 

 says, ' I won't have my bounds broken,' or 'You sha'n't ride 

 over my wheat.' But that is rare, and practically very trifling 

 damage is done. Sometimes in a wet spring, after grass has 

 been bush-harrowed, it is otherwise. Wheat is a very hardy 

 plant, and it takes a great deal to hurt it. I have seen fields 

 three times in my life that I thought utterly ruined by horses' 

 hoofs, and I arranged with the occupiers of the land to send, 

 before harvest, a good agriculturist to look over and report on 

 their state, with a view to compensation ; and on each occasion 

 I received a letter saying it was quite unnecessary, that there 

 had never been a better crop on those particular lands. But 

 all the same, the feelings of the farmer must be taken into con- 

 sideration, and he should be treated with gentleness and civi- 

 lity at all times, and compensated at the proper time if neces- 



