242 THE NEW FOREST 



found a single cut that required the least atten- 

 tion. I do not mean to say that our dogs never 

 got hurt. Sometimes they got a few cuts under 

 particular circumstances ; but if properly managed 

 and understood, the extraction of the wild badger 

 from the most complicated earth may be very 

 hard work for the men, but ought not to be in 

 the least a cruel or brutal business for either 

 dogs or badger. 



I do not think I ever saw a badger hurt by 

 the dogs, and I must have turned out, after they 

 had been dug out, many scores. We did not 

 always carry them back to Lyndhurst, and it has 

 often been a comical sight to see four or five 

 badgers clumsily rolling off down a ride together 

 in the broad daylight, greatly upset and per- 

 turbed at all the happenings to them, and much 

 perplexed as to how in the world they got to 

 where they were, at that time of day ! 



There is an ancient sport, followed chiefly 

 about Christmas time, by the humble sports- 

 men of the district. It is the chase of the 

 squirrel among the trees. Some years ago they 

 were very abundant, until there came an epi- 

 demic which reduced them for a long time to 

 small numbers. 



This is a very ancient form of chase, pursued 

 on quite primeval lines. The squirrel, when 



