ARTIFICIAL COVERS. 145 



recommended to take the precaution of cutting* round 

 the part intended to be burnt, for the space of about 

 four or five yards, to prevent the possibility of the 

 flames extending- to the hedges or the adjacent parts. 

 Burning a cover has a most extraordinary effect upon 

 the hares and rabbits which inhabit it ; when the flames 

 are at their greatest height, so paralized are these un- 

 fortunate sufferers by fire that instead of attempting to 

 escape they run headlong into the devouring element 

 and are thus consumed. Artificial covers are also 

 occasionally made of privit and blackthorn, and even 

 of laurels, but a severe winter is a terrible destroyer 

 of the latter, the ravages of which two genial seasons 

 will scarcely replace. Osier or withy beds as they 

 are called in some counties, also form excellent covers, 

 and are invariably favourite places of resort for foxes, 

 partly on account of their principle food the field- 

 mouse abounding there ; but more especially because 

 the high banks on which osier beds are formed, 

 affording such dry lying even in the wettest weather. 

 I recollect many years ago, when I was an " Oxford 

 boy," seeing a good run from the osier bed at Ded- 

 dington turnpike with the hounds of the late Duke of 

 Beaufort; the brook on the lower side of the cover 

 was more than a bumper, and the pack had actually 

 to swim over to draw this small island, flooded as it 

 was, and which is scarcely half an acre, before the old 

 gentleman made his exit ; however, he beat us after a 

 sharp burst, by going to ground in Sir Thomas 

 Mostyn's (now Mr. Drake's) country near the village 

 of Adderbury. 



Modern invention has in some places substituted 



L 



