HORSES AND HOUNDS. 261 



knowing tlie very little mischief they do to game. In one covert 

 I have several foxes and as much game as I require ; nor have I 

 found, in the last two seasons, either a single hare or pheasant 

 killed by them. There are plenty of rabbits, it is true, to which 

 they are most welcome; and the old vixen does me great service 

 in digging out the stops of young rabbits, in the spring of the 

 year. My keeper admits that one stoat does more mischief in 

 one month tlian a fox will in three or four, among rabbits, 

 which, of course, like all other keepers, he considers rather in 

 the light of his own property. The woodmaiis 'pet continues his 

 coursinsf, and last week ran down four rabbits in one day, three 

 of which were taken from him. 



I think I have now written quite enough to prove that the 

 fox is, of all vermin, the least destructive of game ; and I trust 

 game-preserv^ers will not listen to every idle tale brought them 

 by their keepers, and wantonly destroy an animal which affords 

 so much diversion to their sporting brethren in scarlet, without 

 interfering with their own. 



It is scarcely necessary to make allusion to bag-foxes, which I 

 believe are seldom, if ever, in these days, turned down before a 

 regular pack of fox-hounds, such practices being confined to 

 scratch packs of curs, the proprietors of which think it a good 

 thing to wind-up the hunting season with some long-winded 

 misrepresentation in BelVs Life, with having found a wild fox at 

 No Man's Land, and run him at least forty miles without a check 

 in about fifty minutes. The scent of a bag-fox is so very 

 different to that of a wild one, that a good pack of fox-hounds 

 will not own it. Although this may appear strange, it is, never- 

 theless, true. 



I had once an opportunity of testing it. We had run a fox 

 to ground in a drain, which was dug out, after the hounds had 

 left the place, by some labourers, and carried to one of our 

 hunt, who, of course, forwarded him to me, at the same time 

 requesting that he might have the pleasure of a gallop after 

 him. The fox was put away into a large building, and, when 

 meeting with the gentleman the next day out hunting, I ex- 

 pressed to him my doubts that the hounds would run this fox, 

 if let loose before them, and that I did not approve of such 

 practices. He said, for once it could do no harm, and he should 

 like, of all things, to see if hounds could discern the difference 

 between two scents, which he very much questioned. Then, I 

 said, you shall have an opportunity of judging yourself. 

 Accordingly, at our next fixture, this fox, which had only been 

 caught three days, was taken to a covert which we generally 

 drew first, and there turned loose about half an hour before we 



