The "Bag Fox 



'Tis half-past twelve by the railway clocks, 



And the Earl has just called for his horse and his Fox ; 



After the Earl there rides the Earl's groom 



And then comes a man with a big birch broom,i 



Clad in the Earl's discarded breeches, 



To tickle him up when he comes to the ditches. 



The Earl's admirers are ranged in Brown's yard ; 

 They all wear top-boots and mean to ride hard ; 

 Whether bold dog Fox, or timid hare, 

 Their game to-day, they none of them care ; 

 So 'twas well that the Earl had brought his Fox 

 Safely wrapped up in a little deal box. 



For two hours or more they drew for a hare, 

 But all in vain, all was blank despair ; 

 Then said the Earl to the elder Brown, 

 * Open the box, and turn him down ! ' 



So they turned him down in the Aylesbury Vale, 



In front of a fence called a post and rail. 



To suit the views of a certain ' gent,' 



Who * rather liked timber,' and thought he * went.' 



Over the rails the first to fly 



Was the * gent ' of course, but the Fox was shy, 



And would have declined, but the Earl and his groom 



And the Huntsman and Whips, and the man with the broom, 



And the Browns, Sam and John, and two boys from a cart, 



Would not hear of his shirking, but drove him along ! 



1 Tradition says that the Earl kept his bag foxes in a pit, where they were 

 exercised by a man with a broom. 



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