OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 37 



enemies, — and so is that person who promises to 

 preserve foxes, and at the same time gives secret 

 orders to his keepers to destroy them. 



If you are invited to hunt a country, with 

 promises of support in every way, it will be a 

 source of great mortification, disappointment, and 

 serious inconvenience, if they are not sacredly 

 fulfilled. You may have various other prospects 

 in view, and other countries may be anxious to 

 have you to superintend their hunting establish- 

 ments ; therefore, before you close, I should 

 strenuously advise your having a clear and explicit 

 understanding of what is expected on both sides, 

 that neither party may have it in their power 

 to complain at a future period. The country may 

 probably expect you to do impossibilities, and 

 more than mortal man can perform ; and you 

 may expect more from them than they had any 

 intention of doing. The best plan, therefore, to 

 keep all things right, is to have the agreement 

 put down in black and white, and signed by both 

 parties. The deviating from these instructions 

 may be productive of mutual disputes and dis- 

 satisfaction. 



If you should, after a good day's sport, run 

 a fox to ground in a neighbouring hinit, according 

 to the laws of fox-hunting, it is not correct to 

 dig him. If you run him into a main earth, the 



