FOX-HUNTING THE FOX. 49 



classes him with the badger, as affording a chase of no repute 

 for the horseman, and recommends a sort of rough terrier for 

 the pursuit. And Oliver St. John, in a speech against Straf- 

 ford, says, according to Macaulay, " Strafford was to be regarded 

 not as a stag or hare, but as a fox, who was to be snared by any 

 means, and knocked on the head without pity." This must 

 have been some twenty three or four years later. 



Soon after this period, however, a change must have come 

 over the aspect of affairs with regard to the fox, for we find 

 Addison, if not writing, at least editing, a description of the 

 Coverley Hunt, in 1711, in which the following passage occurs : 

 " His stable doors are patched with noses that belonged to foxes 

 of the knight's own hunting down. Sir Eoger showed me one 

 of them that for distinction sake has a brass nail stuck through 

 it, which cost him about fifteen hours' riding, carried him 

 through half a dozen counties, killed him a brace of geldings, 

 and lost above half his dogs. This the knight looks upon as 

 one of the greatest exploits of his life. The perverse widow, 

 whom I have given some account of, was the death of several 

 foxes ; for Sir Eoger told me that in the course of his amours 

 he patched the western door of his stable." As the said Sir 

 Eoger was fifty-six years old at the time the sketch of him is 

 supposed to commence, and allowing him to have been between 

 twenty and thirty as the most likely age when his ardour for 

 the chase and passion for the widow sent him forth in pursuit 

 of the foxes, we gather that, some thirty-five years after the 

 speech of St. John, the fox had become an honoured object of 

 pursuit, and his trophies were cherished when he had been 

 killed ; that, so far from his chase not being considered eligible 

 for horses, as in Markham's days, it had become a great trial 

 of their endurance, if not speed ; though that foxes were still 

 scarce and unpreserved we may gather from a following passage, 

 where it is said, — " The constant thanks and good wishes of the 

 neighbourhood always attended him, on account of his remark- 

 able enmity towards foxes, having destroyed more in one year 



E 



