COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



CHAPTER VI. 



FOX-HUNTING THE FOX. 



Aha ! the fox ! and after him they ran ; 

 And eke with staves many another man. 

 Ran Coll our dogge, and Talhot, and Gerloud, 

 And Malkin with her distaff in her hand. 

 Ran cow and calf, and eke the veray hogges, 

 So fered were for berking of the dogges. 

 And shouting of the men and women eke. 

 They ronnen so, hem thought her hertes brake." 



In commencing my sketches of the modern chase, it is only 

 right to start with the most popular, and that, beyond doubt or 

 cavil, is fox-hunting. The reasons for this it is not for me to 

 enter on at present ; they will employ my pen later on. ITow 

 the fox is my subject — not the pleasure of hunting him. For 

 this I need plead no excuse, as it must be clear to all that, if he 

 did not exist, there would be no chance to hunt him. He is, 

 except occasionally, when very forward riders are out, the first 

 person in the run ; the pioneer, the hinge on which the whole 

 machine acts, the Hamlet of the play, whose part being omitted, 

 all the rest becomes null and void. Hence it is meet that I 

 treat of him ere saying aught concerning the chase, by which he 

 is made the means of our diversion. 



The fox of to-day holds a very different position in society 

 from that assigned to his ancestors. In the early days of Eng- 

 land's greatness he was held in small honour amongst sports- 

 men, and the quotation from old Dan Chaucer, with which I 



