312 BADGERS MISCHIEVOUS. 



digging will make it unnecessary. If you let 

 the fox first seize your whip, the hound will 

 draw him more readily.* 



You should not encourage badgers in your 

 woods : they make strong earths, which will 

 be expensive and troublesome to you to stop, 

 or fatal to your sport if you do not. You, 

 without doubt, remember an old Oxford toast : 



Hounds stout, and horses healthy ; 

 Earths well stopp'd, and foxes plent}'. 



All certainly very desirable to a fox-hunter; 

 yet I apprehend the earths stopped to be the 

 most necessary, for the others, without that, 

 would be useless. Besides, I am not certain 

 that earths are the safest places for foxes to 

 breed in ; for frequently, when poachers can- 

 not dig them, they will catch the young 

 foxes in trenches, dug at the mouth of the 

 hole, which I believe they call tunning them. 

 A few large earths near to your house are 

 certainly desirable, as they will draw the foxes 

 thither, and, after a long day, will sometimes 

 bring you home. 



* You may draw a fox by fixing a piece of whipcord, 

 made into a noose, at the end of a stick ; which, when the 

 fox seizes, you may draw him out by. 



