DRAWING SMALL COVERS. 147 



get to too great a head, defeat the object for which 

 they were at first introduced, by attracting every idle 

 boy and cur dog within six miles of the place to hunt 

 them. The more frequently large woodlands are 

 ransacked the better, but small gorse covers or spinies 

 should on no account be disturbed oftener than about 

 once in every three weeks or a month, that is if the 

 find is to be booked as a certainty. Beckford recom- 

 mends the encouragement of gorse covers as a great 

 protection to foxes from poachers and fox-catchers ; 

 such might have been the case in the days of that great 

 authority, but it is well known by every one conver- 

 sant in that nefarious practice, that there is no place 

 in the world where foxes can be more easily taken 

 than from gorse covers, unless well watched and pre- 

 served by persons employed for the express purpose. 

 In drawing small covers, it matters but little whether 

 you go up wind or the reverse into them ; if the animal 

 is at home, and a moderate share of pains taken, he is 

 almost sure to be found, and two or three cracks with 

 a whip in the adjoining field, and calling the hounds 

 back with a loud voice, as a huntsman usually does 

 when travelling along, will generally give sufficient 

 warning for a fox to get upon his legs and prepare 

 himself for a start, without the danger of being 

 chopped. Where there is a large riding in a cover, 

 the field had by all means be better collected to that 

 point, as there will be less chance of the fox being 

 headed back, than when each person is left to his 

 own discretion ; the jealousy of getting a good start 

 has been the chief cause of spoiling many a good 

 run. I have occasionally seen a small cover 



L 2 



