THOUGHTS UPON HUNTI^^G. 329 



sary : they should be kept there tilk they are large enough 

 to take care of themselves. It ought to be open at the 

 top, and walled in. I need not tell you, that it must be 

 every Vv'ay well secured, and particularly the fioor of it, 

 which must be either bricked or paved. A few boards 

 fitted to the corners will also be of use, to shelter and to 

 hide them. Foxes ought to be kept very clean, and have 

 plenty of fresh water : birds and rabbits are their best 

 food : horse-flesh might give them the mange ^ for they 

 ar^ subject to this disorder. I remember a remarkable 

 instance of it : — Going out to course, I met the whipper-in 

 returning from exercising his horses, and asked him. If he 

 had found any hares ? — No, Sir, he replied ; but 1 hav,e 

 caught a fox: I saw him sunning himself under a hedge, 

 and, finding he could not run, I drove him up into a cor- 

 ner, got off my horse, and took him up ; but he is since 

 dead. 1 found him at the place he direded me to, and he 

 was indeed a curiosity: he had not a single hair on his 

 brush, and very few on his body. 



I HAVE kept foxes too long, I also have turned them 

 out too young. The safest way, I believe, will be to 

 avoid either extreme. When cubs are bred in an ear;h 



