334 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



Agq37A1Nted as I am with your sentiments^ it would be 

 peedless to desire you to be cautious how you buy foxes. 

 The price that some men pay for them, might well encourage 

 the robbing of every hunt in the kingdom, their own not 

 excepted. But you despise the soi disant gentleman v;ho 

 receives them, more tlian the poor thief who takes them. 

 Some gentlemen ask no questions, and flatter themselves 

 they have found out that convenient viez^o termino for the 

 easy accommodation of their consciences. 



With respe(5t to the digging of foxes that you run tp 

 ground — what 1 myself have observed in that business, I 

 will endeavour to rccolle6t. My people usually, I think, 

 follow the hole, except when the earth is large, and the 

 terriers have fixed the fox in an angle of it ; for they then 

 find it a more expeditious method to sink a pit as near to 

 him as they can. You should always keep a terrier- in at 

 the foxi for, if you do not, he not only may move, but 

 also, in loose ground, may dig himself further in. In 



your woods, it would be difncult to destroy them afterwards. Thus far 

 I objeft to them, as a farmer : I objcft to them also, as a fox-hunter ; 

 since nothing is more prejudicial to the breeding of foxes, than disturbing 

 your wcods late in tliQ season, to deitroy the rabbits. 



