88 THE FOX 



field, barely three-quarters of an acre in extent. 

 This we had securely fenced round so that dogs 

 could not get in. We never entered it even when 

 rabbit-shooting. Naturally, there was quite a rab- 

 bit's sanctuary, but that was rather an attraction 

 to the fox, and there was nearly always one there. 

 Indeed, we might adapt to fox-preserving a well- 

 known proverb, and say, ' Look after the spinnies 

 and the woods will take care of themselves.' 



There is a gorse in the West Somerset 

 country which is so well cared for by the owner 

 of the farm that it has been drawn forty times in 

 succession, and a fox found every time. Again, an 

 able writer in 'Baily,' ' C. R.,' says : ' We know of one 

 small estate in the North of England — of less than 

 two thousand acres in extent — that has hardly been 

 drawn blank within the memory of the present 

 generation. Nor is the estate well off for covert, not 

 more than forty or fifty acres of it being fox-shelter 

 of any description. There are three fir, spruce, and 

 larch plantations of about ten acres apiece, a long, 

 narrow dingle, which is no more than no yards wide, 

 and some half-dozen ornamental plantations of from 

 one to three acres apiece.' The author goes on to 

 tell how when beating for hares in a little coppice of 

 spruce firs, with an undergrowth of heather, out came 



