238 HORSES AND HOUNDS. 



along, and sometimes stopping to listen. This is tlie case when 

 he has been forced from his own native covert, and has there- 

 fore no particular point to make ; he will then endeavour to 

 shake ofl* the hounds by running wide rings, and making back 

 to his favourite haunts again. 



In the months of February and March dog foxes travel long 

 distances to meet their ladies fair, and we have then the best 

 runs. At those times, however, I have sometimes found that 

 the old dog foxes were weak, from being so much on foot, and 

 from want, also, of food, having their attention almost wholly 

 engrossed by other matters. Foxes, also, at this particular 

 season of the year, often have severe battles. A woodman once 

 told me that, upon going early in the morning to his work, lie 

 found two dog foxes fighting so savagely, that they did not 

 notice his approach, and that he might have killed one or both 

 with his heavy walking-stick. I remember, with a hot sun the 

 beginning of March, killing a brace of fine dog foxes in the 

 same day, whicli_ came very unexpectedly to hand, and this I 

 attribute to their being nearly fagged out before they were 

 found by the hounds. Nothing tells so much upon a fox as 

 heat, and although a glaring sun and keen wind in the month 

 of March are prejudicial to scent, knowing well the effect pro- 

 duced by heat on the fox, I would always persevere, and trust 

 to the chapter of accidents to carry me through, scent or no 

 scent, until we succeeded at last in overhauling Mr. Eeynard — 

 often in a very unexpected manner. 



In a future chapter I shall endeavour to relate how foxes 

 were once brought to book by a master of fox-hounds without 

 any scent at all, and how they were made to break covert by 

 anotlier witliout any hounds. Clever, indeed, must we all 

 admit Mr. Wiley to be, when the brains of so many heads 

 have been racked to outwit him, and little is the fair play he 

 meets with. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



Greyliouncl foxes — Lord Drumlanrig's run — Proposed show of fos-liounds at 

 Tattersall's, as well as advertisements of stallions — Advantages of a Club 

 — Choice of a President — Prizes — Changing foxes — Finish of a run in 

 the dark — Strange place of refuge for a fox — A first-rate whipper-in of 

 even more consequence than a first-rate himtsman — Scene in a lady's 

 di'awing room — Kefuge in the chimney, and successful dislodgment. 



Over heath and moorland tliere is generally a capital scent, 

 and in such countries the best and stoutest running foxes are 



