OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 31 



game, fowl, or rabbit, I should be making a 

 false statement ; but if there are plenty of the 

 latter, Foxes will destroy but little game ; and 

 I am certain game preservers may have it in 

 quantities to their heart's content, and Foxes also, 

 if they will but pay their keepers' wages in argent 

 comptant, and not in rabbits. As a proof of this 

 I will mention an instance Avhich happened to 

 me : — I was requested some years ago, at the 

 time I hunted the Thurlow country, to meet at 

 Chippenham, near Newmarket, the owner of which 

 and his keeper said w^e might by chance find a 

 Fox, but they were certain no Foxes had been 

 bred there, as they had not lost a single head of 

 game. I never in my life saw so many pheasants 

 of every sort, and hares innumerable ; and, to 

 the astonishment of all present, in the very middle 

 of the preserve, and lying with the pheasants, so 

 near that they must have almost touched each 

 other, wc found a litter of Foxes, six or seven 

 in number. We killed the old dog and one of 

 the cubs. I must observe, however, there were 

 plenty of rabbits — but they were not the keeper's 

 perquisite. As >ve are on the subject of preserving 

 Foxes, I must relate an occurrence which happened 

 some years ago on the borders of the New Forest. 

 An estate had been sold to an East India Gentle- 

 man, which had been hunted from the time of 



