242 Hunting Countries of England. 



cultivation. That it has not hounds of its own, is 

 much to the disadvantage of those over the border, 

 who drive many a good fox across, never to return — 

 for, not only is there no pack to drive him fairly back, 

 but once across the march, he is treated as a vile beast 

 and shot down accordingly. Truth to tell, poor 

 Reynard's sanctity, though seldom openly assailed, 

 yet holds no universally strong place in the creed of 

 the Mid Kent landowners. I presume there are not 

 two of them who would directly order a fox to be 

 destroyed, and perhaps not one who would boast of 

 having done so — much wickedness as there is upon 

 the earth, whether that earth be grass or plough, 

 Leicestershire or Kent. But only comparatively few 

 among their keepers have had it pointed out to them 

 that the pithy dogma " No fox, no Box" could ever 

 possibly bear any application for them. The latter, 

 consequently, think they are fully and honourably 

 carrying out instructions when they allow the old 

 foxes to eat up a certain number of their rabbits 

 under their very noses. But in a shooting country no 

 heart that ever beat under velveteen could bear with 

 complacency the sight of an earth, round whose mouth 

 lie many feathery proofs of a vixen's careful catering 

 for her young. There is more gold for ^' Gaiters" to 

 be got out of a single shooting party than the most 

 liberal of M.F.H.'s can afford him in a season. So 

 the vixen and her litter find a home elsewhere ; and 

 under the influence of these Malthusian principles, 

 small wonder that woodlands, which should swarm 

 with foxes, are often drawn in silence. 



There is an argument, seldom openly advanced, but 



