DIGGING-OUT 245 



After a day of this sort, when hounds have been 

 knocking about all day, I would certainly dig for 

 an afternoon fox if I thought there was any chance 

 of getting him, and if foxes were not scarce. If 

 hounds have had a good run, scent has been 

 brilliant, and a good point has been made, then, if 

 hounds are in good blood, a fox may be spared, 

 and a point even may be stretched to spare him. 

 An old friend of mine, a huntsman of some ex- 

 perience, very seldom ran a fox to ground after the 

 first few weeks of the season ; indeed, I might 

 almost say after the cub-hunting season. " It 

 is only the bad foxes that go to ground," he 

 would say, " and I never give them a chance of 

 going to ground twice if I can help it. The good 

 foxes get away and save themselves." That there 

 is something in that argument there is no doubt, 

 but I am inclined to think my friend carries it too 

 far on occasion, and I have occasionally seen him 

 dig for a fox in cubbing time when I would not 

 have done so. But I am bound to admit that he 

 has plenty of foxes in his country, that nothing 

 succeeds like success, and that quick foxes which 

 make a good point are very frequently met with, 

 and that he, perhaps, has a better average of sport 

 than most. 



But bearing on his theory that it is only the 

 good fox that goes to ground at once, there is 

 the following true tale : — A well-known pack of 

 hounds found a fox in a gorse covert, ran him hard 

 over three fields, and marked him to ground in a 

 drain. " Useless brute, have him out and kill 

 him," said the Master, who was hunting his own 

 hounds. So they bolted him, but they didn't kill 

 him, not that day at any rate, for after running 



