MODERN PRACTICE. 403 



pended upon, taking the average of scent, to hunt 

 a drag that had become cold ; so they were obliged 

 to be out very early in the morning, which was not 

 only disagreeable, as encroaching upon the sports- 

 man's rest, but was coupled with the disadvantage, 

 at all events with the risk, of finding a gorged fox, 

 too full to run far, much less to run fast. The 

 modern system does not require the drag, as wood- 

 land covers are comparatively small to what they 

 used to be ; gorse covers made for the purpose of 

 holding foxes are easily accessible to hounds accus- 

 tomed to draw them ; and the game is in most coun- 

 tries so plentiful, that if a fox be not found in one 

 cover, he is almost certain to be found in another, 

 and that not far off. The consequence is, no more 

 time is now lost in drawing two or three gorse co- 

 vers, than the drag of one fox formerly occupied ; 

 neither did that always lead to a find. Moreover, 

 at the present hour of finding, there is but little 

 chance of unkennelling a heavily gorged fox. 



It is asserted, that what are called woodland 

 foxes are stouter runners than those bred in the 

 artificial gorse and other covers, and there is good 

 reason to believe they are so. But the great objec- 

 tion to large woodlands is the uncertainty of getting 

 a run, from the difficulty of making foxes break 

 from them, as they naturally hang to places which 

 appear to afford them security ; and it often happens 

 that hounds, and the horses of the servants, have 

 done a fair day's work before the run begins. On 

 the other hand, we admit that a fox found in a wood 

 of considerable extent is more likely to show a de- 



