To Mountain Tarn 



share. A thing most unreasonable, but intensely 

 human. It is by no means a new experience, this 

 dearth of foxes. 



Many years ago, that popular master of the 

 hunt, Colonel Anstruther Thomson, declared that 

 only four foxes were left in the east of Fife, of 

 which he had killed three. There have been 

 merry hunts since. The remaining fox has been 

 killed many times. It may not be so bad as it 

 seems. But when a skilled master and a trained 

 pack cannot find a fox, the presumption is that 

 none are there. 



Huntsmen are complaining, ladies are getting 

 soured. There has been serious talk of abandon- 

 ing a sport, whose fitful but fairly continuous 

 history dates back to the eighteenth century. 

 That were a pity, alike for the honour and 

 manhood of the county. The catastrophe has 

 been postponed. After all, what is a hunt with- 

 out a fox ? Patience, and there will be merry 

 hunts yet. The fox in the covert may be killed 

 as often as that left by Colonel Thomson. 



255 



