30 NOTITIA VEWATICA. 



If a huntsman pursues lus fox beyond his own country, he has a 

 right to endeavour to kill him, even if he shoukl enter a favourite 

 cover of another hunt ; if he goes to ground in a strange country, he 

 may he bolted by a tei-rier, but not by digging, as no spade nor substi- 

 tute for a spade must be used — in fact, the ground must not be broken ; 

 he may be washed out, in case of his going into a drain leading from a 

 pond, where the water can be let into the drain by a sluice ; he may be 

 also bolted from a drain by inserting a lighted wisp of straw at one end 

 of it. The " New Sporting Magazine" records an instance of a fox 

 being bolted from a drain by a person blowing at one end of it the horn 

 of the guard of a mail coach, which happened to come up at the time 

 when the fox went to ground.* 



A fox is a most nervous and timid animal, particularly when coming 

 in contact Avith anything in the shape of an enemy ; and I have known 

 him bolted more than once in my life by ferrets. 



It is well known that in this country the absolute and undisputed 

 right in landed property extends " usque ad caelum," and that a person 

 is undoubtedly at hberty, by the law of the land, to do what he likes 

 with his own ; but, although by this enactment it is legally in his power 

 to determine whom he shall permit to hunt his covers, the by-laws of 

 fox-hunting have decided quite difi'erently, as the right of drawing those 

 covers would, without the least doubt, belong to that hunt which had, 

 without interruption, been in the acknowledged habit of hvuiting that 

 country, within the hmits of which these covers might be situated. If 

 it were not for this, what confusion would ensue ! Upon every slight 

 misunderstanding, or coldness between neighbouring gentlemen, there 

 would be some pretence or other for allowing their covers to be drawn 

 by another master of hounds ; no acknowledged boundary would be 

 kept up, and when the sportsmen left the kennel in the morning, it 

 would be a matter of uncertainty whether their " line of drawing" had 

 not been disturbed throughout on the day before or not, and even whe- 

 ther it Avould be possible for them to hunt with any degree of certainty 

 three or four days a week for the rest of the season. As time rolls on, 

 changes, not only in the demarcation of kingdoms, but also in the ex- 

 tent of hunting countries, are continually taking place ; partly, in the 

 latter case, from the circumstance of a new owner of a jjack living in a 

 more remote distance, or from the number of hunting days being in- 

 creased or diminished. I could enumerate many instances of covers 

 changing hands, or becoming what are termed neutral covers. 



It is in the memory of sportsmen now living, that the far-famed 

 Shuckburg-hills have been claimed by four different hunts. Many years 

 since, when Mr. Wardc hunted Warwickshire, they were drawn by his 

 hounds ; afterwards the Pytchley drew them, and since my recollection 

 they have been hunted both by the packs of Sir Tliomas Mostyn (after- 

 wards sold to Mr. Drake) and of Lord Lichfield, at that time Lord 

 Anson, when his lordship hunted the Dunchurch country, and now they 



* Vide New Sport. Mag. vol. ii. p. 95. 



