KEEPERS 297 



severe reprimand and dismissal was, of course, the 

 immediate result. 



That a keeper should venture to kill a fox is bad 

 enough, certainly ; but that any other persons 

 should think fit to do so is scarcely credible, when 

 they know the loss it would be to the country if 

 fox-hunting was destroyed. The Avriter was once 

 with a very good man, and true fox-hunter, who 

 addressed a respectable-looking man who was giving 

 orders to some working-men on the road, in the 

 following words : " Well, master, I am very glad 

 to see you alive, which I did not expect after what 

 I heard." — " Bless you, sir, I am very well ; what 

 could you have heard else ? " — " Why, I heard that 

 your son had shot a fox ; and any man who would 

 shoot a fox would shoot his own father ! " In 

 justice to this gentleman, it is fair to add, that a 

 more liberal or kinder-hearted man does not live, 

 notwithstanding this speech. 



It is often dangerous to leave a fox which is run 

 to ground, without making some arrangement so 

 that no tricks are played ; and the best plan is to 

 give some man half a crown who Uves near, and 

 can be depended on, or whatever may be thought 

 necessary, to go at night after dark to the earth, 

 and find out whether any traps are set at the mouth 



