262 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



brush of a wild mountain fox — is sufficient 

 testimony. 



And let us look at the statement that " in such 

 a country there can never be any chance of a fox 

 leading hounds a decent gallop " from another 

 standpoint. Quite true it is that in some countries 

 this is the case. But why ? Those who are 

 acquainted with the ways of men ambitious to 

 exceed the bags of their neighbours when they 

 have their " big shoot " will, I fancy, not require 

 telling. It is a well-known fact that in many 

 places it is customary for the keepers to destroy 

 the vixen as soon as the cubs can live without her, 

 and these poor unfortunates are " wired in " and 

 fed till within a few weeks — aye, sometimes till 

 within a few days — of the hunting season. Indeed, 

 I have seen them still " wired in " when hounds 

 have run another fox into the coverts. I do not 

 wish to infer that this is the case in the country to 

 which reference is made in the extract I have 

 given, but I do know that it is a custom which 

 prevails extensively, and I also know that wild 

 foxes in a wild country are not given to dodging 

 about when there is a good pack of hounds behind 

 them. 



Now about the composition of the field when 

 hounds come to disturb this shooter's paradise. 

 Hounds come, we are told, more to afford a mixed 

 coffee-housing throng a holiday than with any 

 other object. It seems to me to savour somewhat 

 of impertinence to judge of a man's motives in 

 hunting the worst part of his country. The 

 palpable motive is to hunt the country fairly, and 

 by so doing please the farmers who live on that 

 side of it. The idea of coming to give a mixed 



