258 THE DIARY OF A HUNTSMAN 



the following did happen. A respectable farmer, who 

 used to hunt regularly with his hounds (and who 

 will probably see this), told him that he was sorry 

 to say there was a rogue that had taken away a 

 lamb several nights following, and begged that the 

 hounds might draw the hedgerows about, and find 

 this villainous fox. A few days afterwards he came 

 and urged it more, saying that other lambs had 

 been taken. As it was an unlikely country to find, a 

 by-day was fixed on. Every hedge and hedgerow 

 at all likely was drawn without the slightest appear- 

 ance of a fox having been there. The hounds were 

 then trotted off to the next wood, about a mile, 

 shortly found, and after a good run killed their fox. 

 The brush was given to the farmer, who went home 

 well satisfied that this was the right fox, and told 

 his shepherd of it, who was equally pleased. A 

 few days afterwards the farmer came again, and 

 said, that having lost some more lambs since the 

 hounds were there, his shepherd, unknown to him, 

 had set a trap for the fox, and in it next morning 

 was found, not a /bo?, but his master's favourite 

 pointer, which he at once destroyed, and never lost 

 another lamb. 



The likely part of a cover to find a fox in is 

 where it is low enough to admit the rays of the sun 



