TREATMENT OP HOUNDS CHASES MAD FOXES. 195 



him injustly ; as the hound in that case, does not know what to be at, and a timid 

 hound sometimes wont draw again for the day. Wait, and let your old hounds get 

 up to the challenge ; they will soon let you know if your game is on foot. 

 Flogging hounds in kennel is of no use ; correct them on the spot, where a fault is 

 committed, and you do good ; they know then, what they are beaten for. 

 A Correspondent of yours, I observed lately, remarks on the absurdity and 

 cruelty of rounding hounds, and cutting off part of their sterns. I perfectly agree 

 with him in opinion, it being about as useful and as ornamental, as the cropping 

 and nicking a horse, and about as humane an act." 



SINGULAR THEATRE FOR THE DEATH OF THE DEER. Some years since, the 

 Earl of Derby turned out from the Oaks, a noble Deer, for a day's sport with his 

 friends ; which, after having traced a very long tract of country, entered the grounds 

 of the late Mrs. Smith, of Ashled, near Epsom, Surry, and being closely pursued 

 by the hounds, it actually leaped through the drawing-room window, the sash of 

 which was down, followed by the pack in full cry. The consternation occasioned 

 in the family, by this strange event, is indescribable : almost miraculously, at that 

 critical moment, no one was in the apartment, some ladies having quitted it about 

 two minutes previously to the irruption of this novel and unexpected visitor, which 

 entered with so little ceremony. The window was almost dashed to atoms, and 

 every part of the room, with its rich carpet and corresponding furniture, covered 

 with blood and dirt. The animal was soon dispatched by the ferocity of the dogs, 

 and perhaps so curious an event is not to be found in the annals of Sporting. As 

 a companion to the above, a Stag graduating towards the City of Oxford, at length 

 took to one of the streets, through which he was followed by the hounds in full cry, 

 into a chapel, and there killed, during divine service. 



RABIES IN FOXES. By accounts from New York, in November 1818, rabies, or 

 madness similar to the canine, existed to a most alarming degree, in the Foxes of 

 Northumberland County. Upwards of forty persons had been bitten and sent to 

 the Stone. A most remarkable and dangerous symptom attends this malady in the 

 American fox the afflicted animal, instead of avoiding the human species as when 

 in health, immediately makes toward them, and even enters houses at mid-day. 

 A Gentleman states that, he saw a fox enter a house-yard, although guarded by 

 several dogs, and that the dogs, instead of attacking the fox, immediately ran off 

 shewing great signs of fear, as dogs instinctively shun one of their own kind when 

 rabid. On another occasion, a fox made towards a boy who was walking along 

 the road ; the boy, to avoid him, leapt into a waggon which was passing, but the 

 fox pursued and bit him in several places. Much injury has likewise been done to 

 the cattle, and the greatest uneasiness prevails amongst the inhabitants, on 

 account of this singular and extraordinary malady. Foxes have been occasionally 



