HORSES AND HOUNDS. 223 



then late I was obliged to give up all further pursuit, and return 

 to our temporary kennel, in the hope that the whippers-in might 

 have been more fortunate in their researches. There again I 

 was doomed to disappointment ; they had returned, after having 

 ridden many miles, without hearing any intelligence of the 

 hounds. It was then becoming dark, and we all three looked 

 gloomy enough ; but in a dark night and an unknown country 

 we were obliged to wait the dawning of another day. 



Before daylight we were all astir again. Some few of the 

 hounds had returned during the night, for which the feeding- 

 house had been left open and their food prepared ; but the 

 body of the hounds was still missing. The whippers-in were 

 again despatched in different directions, and as the line the 

 hounds had taken was towards our home country, I rode straight 

 to the kennels, as the most likely place to find them. To my 

 great delight, they had arrived there before me. They had run 

 their fox into the borders of our own country, and there killed 

 him, in a cottage where he had taken refuge. The old woman 

 to whom it belonged Lad tried to eject the hounds with a broom, 

 but so resolved were they to have their prey, that the old lady 

 was alarmed herself, and fled, leaving them in possession. 

 Having eaten their fox, they gave the old woman no further 

 trouble, and marched off in good order homewards. These 

 particulars we learnt afterwards. 



After wet and stormy nights, foxes are not easily to be found, 

 even where there is no scarcity of them. Much also depends 

 upon the earth-stoppers, few oi whom can be depended upon 

 to stop the earths at a 2)TV2jer hour, in wet and bad nights. This 

 work is often done very carelessly, and foxes instead of being 

 stopped out, are stopped in. Foxes, hke dogs, are very dull and 

 sleepy in windy weather. They seldom then leave their earths 

 until a late hour of the night, and sometimes not at all. Often 

 they have a supply in the larder, which prevents the necessity 

 of their wandering about in search of food, and, like lazy people 

 who have nothing to do, sleep the dreary hours awaj'". I have 

 known foxes in bad weather not move far from their earths for 

 two or three nights following, and in the clicking season this is 

 particularly the case. 



The most impudent thing I ever knew done by a fox was 

 whilst being pursued by my own hounds. He was running for 

 a large head of earths, which (as our fixture was not in that line 

 of country) were not stopped ; and although Jim strove with 

 might and main, he could not arrive there before him, but it 

 was so near a thing, that he was only ahead by two fields. It 

 was bad enough to be foiled after so hard a run ; but the thing 



