370 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



" Fll try hard, master, and so of course will you ; 

 and if he beats us both he is a good un, and no 

 mistake." 



This old fox, however, did contrive to beat us at 

 last; but it was a very near thing, and he never lived 

 to boast of it. He led us a tremendous dance over 

 miles of country, and, at the last, crossed a deep and 

 rapid river, over which we were obliged to seek the 

 assistance of a ferry boat to waft us and our horses. 

 This little delay saved his brush; but he was so 

 beaten that a man breaking stones on the road above 

 the river, seeing him so completely exhausted, caught 

 him, as he told us, by the " tail/' when the old gen- 

 tleman turned and bit him through the leg for such 

 uncourteous treatment ; and then, crossing under a 

 gate, he reached the refuge in some rocks for which 

 he had been running, and from which he never again 

 sallied forth. 



We could relate numerous instances of coolness 

 and sang-froid exhibited by foxes when hounds were 

 in full chase after them which would prove them 

 to be very wide awake and calculating, not timid, 

 animals: and as to forcing them to leave a large 

 covert, or to pursue any course contrary to their in- 

 clinations, it will be found that eventually they suc- 

 ceed in their object, unless barred out from home or 

 outpaced by hounds. We remember the reply given 

 by the late William Codrington, who was considered 

 ml .Meynell for his wonderful knowledge of 

 foxhound pedigrees as well as his own practical ex- 

 perience, to a young paceman who had expressed 

 his opinion very loudly in his presence about the 



