128 NOTITIA VENATICA. 



years ago, when I was an " Oxford Ijoy," seeing a quick tiling of near 

 thirty minutes from tlie osier bed at Deddington turnpike with the 

 hounds of the late Duke of Beaufort ; the brook on the lower side of 

 the cover was more than a bumper, and the pack had actually to swim 

 over to draw this small island, flooded as it was, and which is scarcely 

 half an acre, before the old gentleman made his exit ; however, he 

 beat us after a sharp burst, by going to ground in Sir Thomas Mostyn's 

 (now Mr. Drake's) country near the village of Adderbury. 



Modern invention has in some places substituted covers made of dead 

 wood instead of planting or sowing. These are denominated "stick 

 covers," " faggot covers," or " dead covers ;" they may be found to 

 answer occasionally in the total absence of real brushwood until a regu- 

 lar gorse cover can be raised, but they are also highly objectionable on 

 many accounts. In the first place, no good wild fox will lie in them ; and 

 secondly, they are dreadfully distressing to hounds when drawing, on ac- 

 count of the thorns breaking oft' after they have punctured them, and in 

 consequence frequently causing an obstinate lameness ; lastly, they are 

 awfully expensive, and at the best only last about three years. Where 

 there are many old whitethorn bushes (of twenty or thirty years' growth) 

 upon the side of some warm and sequestered bank, the boughs may be 

 advantageously nicked down, and the interstices filled up with strong 

 stakes and dead wood ; by this means a good cover of several acres may 

 be at once formed quite equal to any gorse cover, Avhicli will last for 

 many years without renewing, and to which foxes will be found to take 

 more kindly than if the whole were composed of faggots and such rub- 

 bish. An artificial earth may also be made in one corner, but it will be 

 found of but little avail for the purpose of rearing turned-down cubs in 

 unless there is a good supply of Avater close at hand ; this is indispen- 

 sable, as without it young foxes Avill inevitably wander away and be lost, 

 and thus starved to death or destroyed. No game should be encour- 

 aged in a cover which is rented or kept up solely as a fox-cover, for 

 reasons too obvious to mention ; and even rabbits, where they are 

 allowed to get to too great a head, defeat the object for which they were 

 at first introduced by attracting every idle boy and cur dog Avithin six 

 miles of the place to hunt them. The more frequently large woodlands 

 are ransacked the better, but small gorse covers or spineys should on 

 no account be disturbed oftcner than about once in every three weeks or 

 a month, that is if the find is to be booked as a certainty. Beckford re- 

 commends the encouragement of gorse covers as a great protection to 

 foxes from poachers and fox-catchers ; such might have been the case 

 in the days of that great authority, but it is Avell known by every one 

 conversant in that nefarious practice that there is no place in the world 

 Avhere foxes can be more easily taken than from gorse covers, unless 

 Avell Avatched and preserved by persons emijloycd for the express pur- 

 pose. In draAving small covers it matters but little Avhether you go uj) 

 Avind or the reverse into them ; if the animal is at home, and a moderate 

 share of pains taken, he is almost sure to be found : and tAvo or three 

 cracks Avith a Avhip in the adjoining field, aiul calling the hounds back 

 with a loud voice us a huntsman usually docs Avhen travelling along, Avill 



