BAG FOXES. 301 



LETTER XXIII. 



1 TOLD you, I believe, at the beginning of 

 our correspondence, that I disliked bag-foxes; 

 I shall now tell you what my objections to them 

 are: — the scent of them is different from that of 

 other foxes : it is too good, and makes hounds 

 idle ; besides, in the manner in which they 

 generally are turned out, it makes hounds 

 very wild. They seldom fail to know what 

 you are going about before you begin, and 

 if often used to hunt bag-foxes, will become 

 riotous enough to run any thing. A fox that 

 has been confined long in a small place, and 

 carried out afterwards, many miles perhaps, in 

 a sack, his own ordure hanging about him, 

 must needs stink extravagantly. You are also 

 to add to this account, that he most probably is 

 weakened for want of his natural food and usual 

 exercise ; his spirit broken by despair, and his 

 limbs stiffened by confinement : he then is turn- 

 ed out in open ground, without any point to go 

 to. He runs down the wind, it is true ; but he 



