HUNTING DIRECTORY. 203 



Of Digging Foxes. 



your hounds are in v\ ant of blood, stop all the holes, lest 

 the fox should bolt out unseen. It causes no small eon- 

 fusion when this happens. The hounds are dispersed 

 about, and asleep in different places : the horses are 

 often at a considerable distance ; and many a fox, by 

 taking advantage of this favoiu'able moment, has saved 

 his life. 



" If hounds are in want of blood, and they have had 

 a long run, it is the best way, without doubt, to kill the 

 fox upon the earth ; but if they have not run long, if 

 the fox is easy to be digged, and the cover is such a one 

 as they are not likely to change in, it does the hounds 

 more good to turn him out upon the earth, and let 

 them work for him. It is the blood that will dp them 

 most good, and may be serviceable to the hounds, to 

 the horses, and to yourself. Digging a fox is cold 

 work, and may i*equire a gallop afterwards to warm you 

 all again. Before you do this, if there are any other 

 earths in the cover, they should be stopped, lest the 

 fox should go to ground again. 



" Let your huntsman try all around, and let him be 

 perfectly satisfied that the fox is not gone on, before you 

 try an earth : for want of this precaution, I dug three 

 hours to a terrier that lay all the time at a rabbit : there 

 was another circumstance which I am not likely to forget, 

 — ' that I had twenty miles to ride home afterwards.' 

 A fox sometimes runs over an earth, and does not go 

 into it : he sometimes goes in, and does not stay : he 

 may find it too hot, or may not like the company he 

 meets with there. 1 make no doubt that he has good 



