NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



most persecuted of all beasts in Britain. In baiting 

 with young dogs some of the vilest cruelties were 

 formerly perpetrated upon him. For instance, the 

 lower jaw of the poor brute was occasionally sawn off, 

 so that the unfortunate beast should be rendered harm- 

 less when fastened up in a barrel and there attacked by 

 his oppressors. The very term to "badger " shows but 

 too plainly the infamous treatment that this most 

 inoffensive and luckless animal has been accustomed to 

 receive from countless generations of brutal folk. It is 

 something to our credit that we have put down such 

 cruel pastimes as bull-baiting, cock-fighting, badger- 

 baiting, and the like ; yet it is clear that the badger, 

 although he lives in somewhat happier times than 

 formerly, has still a good many foes. It is surely no 

 achievement by any pack of hounds that they should 

 have destroyed 161 of these peaceful animals in the 

 space of three seasons ! There is no great harm in 

 killing a badger with fox-hounds when found in the 

 open, an incident that not infrequently happens (a year 

 or two since the Pytchley killed two in one morning); 

 but 161 of these beasts slain in three seasons by a 

 single hunt it is a slaughter scarcely to be justified 

 even by the master and huntsman of a badger-infested 

 country ! 



A season or two back a pack of hounds, the Axe 

 Vale, were got together in the West of England to 

 hunt badgers by night. Ten and a half couples were 

 used, and very good sport was shown. At first moon- 

 light nights were chosen, but it was found that hounds 

 ran just as keenly in black darkness as by the light 

 of the moon. On these occasions the master and 

 whippers-in wore belts and carried policemen's lanterns. 

 This may be classed as legitimate sport ; and in a wild 

 country, where badgers are plentiful, there can be little 



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