OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 45 



Having established a sufficient number of these 

 earths, your next consideration must be the 

 appointment of careful earth-stoppers, as their 

 duty extends to the taking care of the litters of 

 foxes, as well as to the stopping of the earths ; 

 and in order to be certain of having them well 

 stopped, you will find it safest to pay for each 

 time of stopping, and agree with the people who 

 perform this necessary service, that if the earths are 

 not stopped at the proper time, and as they ought 

 to be, they will not he paid for that day^s stopjnng. 



If, after this notice, you run to ground in any 

 particular man's stop, you had better discharge 

 him immediately. It is nothing more than fair 

 that the keepers should stop the earths in their 

 own manors, it may be the means of saving a 

 litter of foxes. Keepers in general will not refuse 

 a sovereign, so that if you make it answer their 

 purpose they will not destroy your foxes, unless 

 they have secret orders from their masters to 

 do it. Earth stoppers that are paid annually, if 

 it happens to be an open winter, and they have 

 to stop often, think it a hardship : whereas, the 

 man who is paid every time he stops, takes pleasure 

 in doing it, knowing he will be recompensed for 

 his trouble. It is his interest also to look after 

 the foxes, for the more he has in his district, the 

 oftener the hounds will be there. 



