CHAPTER VIII 

 THE BAG FOX 



THE Noble Earl of an ancient name'Vas'^a Cabinet 

 Minister who flourished less than a hundred years 

 ago, and was wont every now and then to leave his 

 portfolio in London and refresh his mind and body with a 

 gallop after his own pack of Hounds over the Vale of Ayles- 

 bury. As he could only hunt occasionally he left nothing 

 to chance, and therefore found it conver\ient not to limit 

 himself to one kind of game, so he kept a pack of Hounds 

 who would hunt anything ; and further than that, in order 

 to make a certainty of a find he would always have a bag 

 fox ready to his hand. Legend has it that one or more 

 foxes — we cannot give a fox kept in captivity the compli- 

 ment of a capital F, which we accord to the wild Fox — were 

 imprisoned in a pit somewhere near Tring, and duly kept 

 in condition by being exercised by the man with the big 

 birch broom. An affair with one of these foxes is duly 

 described in humorous verse by an unknown author, who, 

 from the tragedy of drawing for a hare for two hours without 

 success, passes to the comedy of turning down the fox and 

 the excitement of his narrow escape ; works up to the anti- 

 climax of digging him out alive, and tells of his safe conduct 



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