72 THE LIFE OF A FOX 



I suppose you will now not wonder that I have 

 lived to so great an age in this country. It is true 

 I have had some narrow escapes within the last few 

 seasons, particularly one in the year 1840, when I 

 was found by the hounds then belonging to Mr. 

 Smith, and in consequence of beating them, called 

 the Hero of Waterloo. I attributed my escape to 

 the system above described and adopted by the men 

 on that occasion, when the hounds were hallooed 

 on to a fresh fox, which the whipper-in Jones had 

 viewed away on the farther side of Loalland Wood, 

 at a time when the hounds were hunting my scent 

 through it, I having gone through and away from 

 it long before he got there. On looking back I 

 witnessed, to my regret, Mr. Smith's displeasure at 

 the system, which from that time he insisted should 

 not be continued. However, I was, four days 

 afterwards, lying in a small wood at Kelmarsh, 

 when the hounds pursued a fox in full cry, and 

 came straight towards where I lay. Just before 

 they arrived I heard the following words addi'essed 

 by Mr. Smith to his whipper-in : " Where are you 

 riding to before the hounds, when they are running 

 hard ? Keep behind them in your place. If we 

 cannot kill our fox without your acting thus, we had 

 better have a pack of whippers-in, and no hounds at 



