NOTITIA VENATIOA. 119 



winter cvcnino-, and just upon the eve of retiring for the night, when a 

 neighbouring farmer hrouglit me a fox in a large basket, wliich he had 

 just taken in an outhouse. As everybody was gone to bed excepting 

 myself, and not being able to shut him up in a better place of security, 

 I left him in the room where I was then sitting for the night, and gave 

 orders that ho should not be disturbed till 1 came down in the morning ; 

 however, the next day a maid-servant, going in to light the fire as usual 

 about seven o'clock, 02)ened the shutters, when the fox, perceiving the 

 light, jumped from the chimney where he had gone to ground, and dart- 

 ing through the window like a rocket made his escape. I was imme- 

 diately informed of the departure of the prisoner, and, perceiving that a 

 heavy storm of snow had fallen, it being ankle-deep and still snowing, 

 and the chance of hunting on that day at the regular hour being com- 

 pletely gone, I ordered the horses to be saddled ; and in less than ten 

 minutes they were out, the men mounted, and every hound in the ken- 

 nel (forty-one couples) on the line of the fugitive ; it proved to be a most 

 burning scent, and, after a sharp burst of about two miles, we killed him 

 as he was running in a direct line for a well-known head of earths ; if 

 the scent of reynard was good, the smell of the soot was much more 

 pungent, as it might be winded the Avhole way. The animal, when 

 killed, certainly looked like a hunted devil, and the hounds, after they 

 had eaten him, appeared as if they had had their mustachoes blackened 

 for a masquerade. The hole through which he had escaped was trian- 

 gular, exactly the shape of his head, and so small that it seemed impos- 

 sible for him to have forced his way through it. He had been during 

 the night iip and down the chimney some dozen times, as might be 

 seen by the black marks all over the room. lie had tried the 

 chimney-piece, pictures, all the chairs, and had entered, as far as ho 

 could, into a hat and two caps which were on a table, to try to find 

 an exit. This calls to my remembrance the anecdote of — 



" Mr. Stubbs, a crack rider no doubt in his time, 

 Who hunting on Sunday considered no crime-" 



He kept a pack of harriers, Avith which he used occasionally to hunt 

 bag-foxes, and his plan for getting them into condition was to shut them 

 up in a small place, with a hole to admit the light about six feet above 

 their heads, at which they Avonld continually employ themselves in jumj)- 

 iug, to endeavour to escape, and by that means get into good wind and 

 condition. 



Before I conclude this chapter, I must be permitted to write a few 

 words on the cocktail and immanly amusement of bag-fox hunting. 

 I cannot but express my surprise and disgust that any one calling him- 

 self a sportsman shoidd be found to advocate the practice of so 

 barbarous and pitiable a substitute for hunting. Let the hard ridei's of 

 Ireland catch their foxes in the mountains, and shake them in the plains, 

 if they please ; or let the English residents at Naples solace themselves 

 with a fotir-mile gallop after an unfortunate cur-dog, rendered more than 

 half mad by a good shaking, and then ejected from a sack ; but never 

 let that gallant animal, the fox, be tortured or vanquished in any other 

 manner than by legitimate hunting. 



