10 HUNTING THE FOX 



ever actually manages the earth-stopping, the 

 importance of it cannot be overestimated. A 

 badly stopped country is responsible for more 

 trouble to the cause of Fox-hunting than almost 

 anything else. It acts and reacts on the whole 

 reputation of the sport. To draw coverts blank 

 because the earths are open places the entire Hunt 

 in a ridiculous position. To run to ground just as 

 Hounds are settled to their Fox causes acute 

 disappointment to every one. If the Fox does not 

 find an open earth until he has shown a good run, 

 some of the ladies and gentlemen may indeed have 

 enjoyed their gallop, and may take refuge in the 

 comfortable formula that the good Fox will live 

 to run another day. This light-hearted prophecy 

 may or may not be fulfilled. No one can tell. 

 Some one may make it his business to see that the 

 Fox does not get out of that earth alive. But it 

 is quite certain that constantly running to ground 

 seriously impairs the moral of both Huntsman and 

 Hounds. Nothing makes a pack of Foxhounds so 

 well as killing beaten Foxes. Nothing unmakes 

 them like being robbed of their game when they are 

 running for blood. And with regard to the pre- 

 servation of Foxes, the ancient paradox, " The 

 more Foxes you kill, the more you have to kill," 

 contains a vital truth. The whole countryside 

 soon gets to know whether the Hounds are killing 

 their Foxes or not. If they kill them, all is well. 



