HUNTING TOURS. 5 



seen it drawn so very many times without 

 any sport worth naming. Of late years the 

 success of this covert seems to have been 

 restored, and some of the best runs have 

 been from this place. The cause, I think, 

 may be thus explained : — After the primitive 

 celebrity had been established, the country, 

 for several years, was not regularly hunted, 

 and no doubt the good old breed of foxes 

 was ignominiously destroyed. Subsequently, 

 as I have good reason to believe, some French 

 foxes were turned down which were a dege- 

 nerate race. Time, and the natural inter- 

 course of the species, has improved their 

 habits and constitutions, and they have 

 gained the character of their predecessors. 

 That the breeds of foxes are susceptible to 

 hereditary influences I entertain not the 

 slightest doubt. It was, I remember, too, 

 a notoriously bad scenting covert, but on 

 making that remark to Mr. Stubbs, he replied 

 that he had not found it so. I saw it drawn 

 by his hounds during my visit when there 

 was no fox at home to enable me to form 

 an opinion ; but I observed it was very much 

 lighter in the bottom than formerly, conse- 



