266 THE DIARY OF A HUNTS:\L\N 



and ■v\'ill soon after take to them. But the vixen 

 is to be still kept chained up as long as she lives, 

 and she vnR breed a Mtter of cubs every year, for 

 the dog foxes ^vill be sure to find her out. The 

 situation most desirable would be near a pond or 

 stream of water, when it would not be necessary 

 for any person to carry a supply of water, and it 

 should be in some open place, within sight of a 

 cottage where the person who takes care of her 

 Uves. A butcher should be engaged to supply 

 some sheeps' paunches, or offal of some sort, twice 

 a week ; this, and the remains of poultry, etc., from 

 the great houses near, ^\ill be food for her. The 

 ad^'antages of this plan over that of turning do^m 

 and feeding cubs ^\dthout a Aixen, is that, when 

 these cubs are found or frightened after they take 

 to the woods, they avtU come straight to the vixen 

 where they were bred, and be safe until they are 

 old enough to show sport, when the earth could be 

 stopped by an iron grating the day the hounds were 

 expected. Not so ^^^th those turned do^\^l and fed 

 by hand, if they are hunted before Christmas, or 

 before they have learnt the country and how to 

 find their o-vvn food. On being driven away from 

 what has been their home, they know not where 

 they are, or their way back, and are seldom heard 



