120 HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 



where they will have more work to do. The more they scratch 

 their faces, the better they will turn out in the end. By hunting 

 the large coverts during the months of August and September, 

 you will not only break your young hounds in, but foxes wdll 

 fly from them in the season and give you better chases. Every 

 litter of foxes, however, should have a turn before October. It 

 will teach them to get out of the way of shooters and their dogs, 

 and make them seek other places of refuge. 



It has been asserted by some masters of fox-hounds, that 

 main earths being generally known to poachers as v>^ell as 

 keepers and earth- stoppers, are unsafe places for cubs to be bred 

 in. They are, however, seldom laid up in such places. The 

 vixen generally deposits her young in some bye earth or large 

 rabbit pipe, away from the main earths, to which, when a month 

 or two old, they will often remove. Foxes which have been 

 bred underground will find earths somewhere, or use drains, 

 from which they may be much more easily taken than from a 

 large head of main earths. Stopping up these large places of 

 refuge for the whole season, as suggested by some writers on 

 fox-bunting, is, in my humble opinion, a very objectionable 

 plan ; your foxes will then go wide away into your neighbour's 

 country, or seek shelter in less secure places. The larger a head 

 of earths is the better. They should all and always be kept 

 open, unless when required to be stopped the night before hunt- 

 ing, and invariably be opened again the same evening, and 

 every pipe cleaned out. 



The earth-stopper, or keeper, who has the charge of these main 

 earths, should be well paid for his trouble in looking after them, 

 and it is the business of the whipper-in to pay them a visit 

 occasionally, to see that no tricks are played. It is no such easy 

 matter to get a fox out of a strong head of earths. Poachers do 

 bolt them into purse nets with a good dog, and sometimes a 

 large net is set up all round the earths, with sticks and bells ; 

 but it takes time to do all these things,^ and a good earth-stopper 

 should visit the earths once a day, either going or returning 

 from his work. A man who has a large head of earths to attend 

 to, ought to receive five shillings at least for each stopping out 

 at night, and half-a-crown for putting them to in the morning. 

 As all our sport depends so much upon this work being done 

 properly, it is good policy, if no better motive exists, to reward 

 these men handsomely, as it is in their power not only to pay 

 themselves by selling foxes, but also to spoil a day's sport by 

 carelessness or inattention. Much will, of course, depend upon 

 the country you hunt, and the master of the coverts, whether 

 lie is at heart a real well-wisher to fox-hounds or not. In some 



