HOME AND HAUNTS OF THE FOX 85 



keeper mentioned by the late Duke of Beaufort, they 

 have litters and old foxes too. All of us who are 

 sportsmen by training owe too much to the keeper 

 friends of our youth to sweep into one condemnation 

 a class of men who no more deserve to be judged by 

 the dishonest and inefficient members of their profes- 

 sion than do, for example, soldiers, sailors, or lawyers. 

 Fcxes, however, as a rule, make their homes in 

 coverts, natural or artificial, and the provision and 

 care of these is a very important matter for the 

 prosperity of a foxhunting country. Although it may 

 be said that the best thing we can do for foxhunting 

 is to leave foxes alone, injudicious friendship and 

 hostility are equally injurious to sport ; but this does 

 not apply to artificial coverts. The best of these 

 really are formed by allowing or assisting Nature to 

 have her own way, and the thickest and most imper- 

 vious coverts are some of the ' artificial ' coverts of 

 which there are so many in Leicestershire and North- 

 amptonshire. But all coverts, whether natural or 

 artificial, require some care in order that they may 

 have shelter or lying for the foxes. Woods, large and 

 small, and gorse coverts have a tendency to become 

 thin, and when there is no undergrowth, and the 

 covert is open to every passing cur, the fox soon 

 leaves it for some more convenient shelter. 



