134 ANECDOTE OF A FOX. 



o'clock, opened the shutters, when the fox perceiving 

 the light, jumped from the chimney where he had 

 gone to ground, and darting through the window like 

 a rocket, made his escape. I was immediately informed 

 of the departure of the prisoner, and perceiving that 

 a heavy storm of snow had fallen, it being ankle deep 

 and still snowing, and the chance of hunting on that 

 day at the regular hour being completely gone, I 

 ordered the horses to be saddled ; and in less than ten 

 minutes they were out, the men mounted, and every 

 hound in the kennel (forty-one couples) on the line of 

 the fugitive : it proved to be a most burning scent, 

 and after a sharp burst of about two miles, we killed 

 him, as he was running in a direct line for a well 

 known head of earths; if the scent of reynard was 

 good, the smell of the soot was much more pungent, as 

 it might be winded the whole way. The animal, when 

 killed, certainly looked like a hunted devil, and the 

 hounds, after they had eaten him, appeared as if they 

 had had their mustachios blackened for a masquerade. 

 The hole through which he had escaped was triangular, 

 exactly the shape of his head, and so small that it 

 seemed impossible for him to have forced his way 

 through it. He had been during the night up and 

 down the chimney some dozen times, as might be seen 

 by the black marks all over the room. He had tried 

 the chimney-piece, pictures, all the chairs, and had 

 entered, as far as he could, into a hat and two caps 

 which were on a table, to try to find an exit. This 

 crIIs to my remembrance the anecdote of — 



" Mr. Stubbs, a crack rider no doubt in his time, 

 Who hunting on Sunday considered no crime." 



