NOTITIA VENAIICA. 161 



May. Altliough I have frequently known a pack of hounds to destroy, 

 by accident, a Httor of cuhs Avhich might have been " laid up " above 

 ground, or " stub-bred," as they are generally termed, during the 

 latter end of the month of March or April, still it is a misfortune of 

 rare occurrence, even in districts the best preserved. Tho follow- 

 ing account, however, of the wholesale annihilation of foxes, which is 

 recorded in " The Operations of the Belvoir Hounds " during the 

 spring of the year 1813, is, I should imagine, perfectly without parallel, 

 either in ancient or modern fox-hunting : — " The Duke of Rutland's 

 hounds met at Belvoir on April the 10th ; it was a complete summer's 

 morning — the sun most brUhaut, the wind south-east, and the thermo- 

 meter at 60^. We went to the gorse under the fir-clump at the head 

 of the Three Queens' Lane, and finding, ran at the best pace over the 

 Denton Hollow, by Winmer Hill, and to the Denton Banks — ^fifteen 

 minutes. Here the fox tm-ned back, and we hunted him well across 

 the fallows, over the Three Queens' Lane, leaving HaUam's Wood on 

 the left, to Croxton Bank. Two or three foxes were here on foot, one 

 of which we hunted across Cedar HiU, and towards Seg's Holt. He 

 beat us. We cast back through the Ozier Holt, below Croxton Banks, 

 into a strong patch of gorse, where the hounds killed one fox, and ran 

 another across Cedar HUl to Branston Town-end. Wliile we were 

 checking, we heard of his being seen at the reservoir head. Casting 

 the hounds to the spot, they hit him in, and instantly killed him. 

 We went back to Croxton I3anks, and destroyed a litter of five cubs 

 in the grove, between the banks and HaUam's Wood. Went away 

 Avith another fox to Croxton Banks, and kUled him, as well as another 

 litter of cubs in the patch of gorse, where we had found before. We 

 drew forward to a piece of gorse to the left of HaUam's Wood, and 

 there kiUcd a bitch fox and a third litter of cubs. Another fox going 

 away, we ran him fast by HaUam's and Cony gear Woods, where a 

 brace were on foot, through Croxton Banks and over Cedar HiU, almost 

 to the reservoir, and back to the large gorse cover at the banks (now in 

 the act of being burnt and destroyed), where we kiUed him. Thus com- 

 pleting a slaughter of five old foxes and thirteen or fourteen cubs in 

 one day ! This last touch lasted half an hour at the best pace." 



Vixen foxes generaUy lay up their cubs from the middle to the end of 

 the month of March ; some litters are produced as late as the middle of 

 AprU, but not often. In some instances cubs have been discovered in 

 the depth of winter, though such occm-rences are rare. I recoUect Mr. 

 Osbaldeston's hounds once kiUcd a bitch fox in cub during the month of 

 December, in Northamptonshire. A good nm-sery, as a feeder to the 

 rest of the country, is a most essential thing, and as some persons are 

 not fond of having their covers disturbed very late in the season, the 

 convenience and wishes of aU large landed proprietors, whose covers are 

 extensive, and whose love for hunting and its concomitants prompts 

 them to preserve the cubs, as weU as the old foxes, ought on aU occa- 

 sions to be considered. It is, I am sorry to observe, a circumstance of 

 every day occurrence to hold out the appearance of preserving, wliile 

 not one Utter of cubs is ever permitted to remain, for fear that some old 



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