78 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



a taint in the hunting atmosphere which Mr. Smith 

 succeeded in removing. 



But Mr. Smith had also the reputation of being a 

 recognised literary authority on everything appertain- 

 ing to the noble science. His " Extracts from the 

 Diary of a Huntsman" had been published in 1838, 

 and a second edition was called for in 1841. He says 

 in his Preface that he had killed ninety foxes in ninety- 

 one days' hunting one season in a bad-scenting 

 country. He alluded to the Craven country, though 

 I should hardly call the Craven a bad-scenting country. 

 In any case, the book is still regarded as an authority, 

 more especially in regard to foxes. Mr. Smith did not 

 believe that foxes cared about feather. His own words 

 are : "That they do prefer rabbits is easily proved to 

 be the case by confining in some place a fox and 

 with him a rabbit, and every other sort of food live or 

 dead, that can bethought of, and he will take the rabbit 

 first for a certainty. This is not a great reason, but the 

 great reason why keepers dislike foxes, for every fox 

 destroys rabbits in one year sufficient to supply 

 the keeper with gin ; consequently when he sees a 

 fox he loses his spirits as well as his temper." The 

 moral, of course, is that gentlemen who wish well 

 to hunting should not allow their keepers to sell 

 the rabbits. Mr. Smith declares that he never saw 

 three places where a pheasant had been destroyed by 

 a fox during the whole time he hunted hounds, 

 although constantly looking whenever he went in 

 coverts abounding in pheasants and foxes at the 

 same time. 



