DIGGING-OUT 243 



but who are attending to everything else under the 

 sun, from the last Parliamentary debate to the 

 newest fashion in bonnets. And to listen to what 

 they have to say on the homeward ride, and the 

 opinions they express respecting hounds and hunts- 

 man and whipper-in, would confirm the opinion 

 strongly. Nor is it difficult to understand why 

 this is. Fox-hunting, from the breeding of a pack 

 of hounds to accounting handsomely for a fox at 

 the end of a good run, is a matter of intricate 

 science. There are many things to attend to 

 which, small enough in themselves, make up a 

 pretty considerable aggregate, and things of which 

 the ordinary members of the field know nothing. 

 Indeed, they have had little opportunity of learn- 

 ing, but I think they might make more of the 

 opportunities which do present themselves. Hunts- 

 men, though caring little to talk about the riding 

 part of the business, are never slack in imparting 

 knowledge to those who seek it, about hounds, 

 foxes and their ways, and the thousand and one 

 details which make up the science of hunting. 



Perhaps there are few subjects in connection 

 with hunting on which more nonsense is talked 

 than on the subject of digging-out. When a fox 

 is run to ground there are generally but two people 

 who know all the circumstances of the case, the 

 Master and the huntsman, and certainly in the 

 majority of cases what they decide to do is what 

 ought to be done under the circumstances. Yet 

 no sooner is a fox run to ground than you will 

 hear on all sides the opinion expressed that it is 

 unfair to dig, that the fox ought to be spared, that 

 they are sure to find in such and such a covert, 

 which covert is probably intended to be part of 



