116 HUNTING TOURS. 



mined on having him out, and forthwith tools 



went to work in earnest ; hitting on the right 



spot the men were not long in getting sight of 



his brush. A labourer, ambitious to display 



his talent, undertook to draw him, and 



having seized the brush, passed the thong 



of a hunting whip under the fox's body as 



he drew him from the drain, and got it up 



to the shoulders, but, in struggling, the 



animal slipped his body through the thong, 



and, thus getting his head at liberty, fixed 



his fangs severely in his assailant's right hand 



as the said hand was about to secure his 



captive by the neck. The artistic plan 



under such circumstances is to draw the fox 



by his brush and hind legs with the left 



hand, and, passing the right along his back, 



seize him by the neck the instant his ears 



are visible. On the fox being turned down 



and the hounds laid on, after threading a 



hedge and turning short to the right, he 



evidently hoped to gain a sanctuary in his 



well-known haunts in Compton Dingles, but 



he had travelled too far, and was too much 



exhausted with his incarceration in the drain, 



to accomplish his purpose, and the hounds 



despatched him at twenty-five minutes past 



