248 HOESES AND HOUI^DS. 



sider a good subscription, are often anything but agreeably- 

 surprised, at the end of tlie season, with a long list of these 

 little items, which at the commencement they thought little of. 

 Were real sportsmen only, and men of business, to undertake 

 the management, these excrescences would be lopped off, or re- 

 duced to their proper level ; for, in fact, these extra expenses 

 should not be borne at all by a master of hounds ; they properly 

 belong to the owners of coverts and the gentlemen of the 

 country, and, if not agreed upon as to their peculiar province, 

 a separate fund at least should be provided to meet such con- 

 tingencies. I have known two guineas paid for each litter of 

 cubs, and a guinea per fox for every one found after the 1st of 

 November, and the earth-stopping as well • but this was in a 

 country almost deficient in proprietors as hunting men ; in fact, 

 the keepers were masters, and, unless well paid, there would 

 have been no foxes at all. These expenses were borne by the 

 unhappy master, as part and parcel of his hunting establish- 

 ment. 



In my own country we had once a very unfriendly neighbour 

 to foxes : in whose coverts we scarcely ever found a specimen of 

 the vulpine genus, the vestigia nulla retrorsum being rigidly 

 exemplified. Upon- the departure of this game preserver a 

 genuine sportsman succeeded, who knew very well the tricks 

 and lies of gamekeepers. I called upon him with a request that 

 I might still be permitted to draw the coverts, and that he 

 would not allow his keepers to destroy the foxes, which I assured 

 him I was well aware had been the case with his predecessor. 

 His reply was both courteous and to the point : — " You are most 

 welcome to draw my coverts as often as you think proper — once 

 a week if you like, and it is my business, as a true sportsman, 

 to provide foxes'' On the following day he sent for the keepers; 

 his address to them was laconic enough : " Whenever the fox- 

 hounds draw my coverts they will find foxes, or all of you will 

 find fresh places." One of the old fox-killers, venturing to re- 

 monstrate at this peremptory mandate, and asking how foxes 

 were to be found if there were none there, was cut short with 

 this rejoinder : " Where they come from is no concern of mine, 

 but here they shall be, or you shall not." 



y^e never drew those coverts afterivards, even if we were there 

 sometinies once a week, ivithout finding a fox. So much dif- 

 ference is there between 7'eal and sham preservers of foxes. We 

 \yere not obliged to pay or fee these keepers for foxes found or 

 litters bred ; knowing their master's humour, the smallest dona- 

 tion was by them most thankfully received. We had some sham 

 preservers of foxes also, of whom I was well aware ; they were 



