OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 105 



dig him, give him to the hounds on the earth, 

 and go home. But whatever you do never turn 

 out a bag-man ; it is injurious to your hounds, 

 makes them wild and unsteady ; besides, nothing 

 is more despicable, or held in greater contempt 

 by real sportsmen than the practice of hunting 

 bag-foxes. It encourages a set of rascals to steal 

 from other hunts ; therefore keep in mind, " if 

 there were no receivers there would be no thieves." 

 What chiefly contributes to make fox-hunting so 

 very far superior to other sports, is the wildness 

 of the animal you hunt, and the difficulty in catch- 

 ing him. It is rather extraordinary, but never- 

 theless a Avell known fact, that a pack of hounds, 

 which are in sport and blood, will not eat a bag- 

 man. I remember hearing an anecdote (when I 

 was in Shropshire many years ago), of the late 

 Lord Stamford's hounds, which I will relate to 

 you as I heard it. The present Lord Forrester 

 and his brother Mr. Frank Forrester, then boys, 

 were at their uncle's for the holidays. A farmer 

 came to inform them a fox had just been seen 

 in a tree. All the nets about the premises were 

 collected and the fox was caught ; but the Squire 

 of Willey, a sportsman himself, and a strict pre- 

 server of foxep, sent the fox immediately to Lord 

 Stamford by one of his tenants, that he might 

 be informed of the real circumstance. The next 



