SOME YORKSHIRE AND WESTERN MIDLAND HUNTS. 183 



of times, but I knew of no earth where I was likely to see cubs, 

 and was slightly incredulous. But the keeper piloted us into 

 the Tower Wood, the largest covert on the estate, and in a 

 quarter which had been newly planted, and through which 

 we crept very quietly, were three or four cubs playing round 

 a tree. After a minute or two they disappeared, and the 

 keeper showed us a young spruce fir which had grown in 

 width, but not in height. It spread out fan-shape, and close 

 to the top in a very sheltered position about four feet from 

 the ground, the litter had been reared. In that particular 

 part of the country a very big majority of the litters of foxes 

 are bom and brought up below the earth, and though I have 

 known of vixens having their cubs above ground in the depths 

 of a strong gorse covert the fox born in the open is probably 

 as scarce in the north as the stub-bred fox is common in the 

 south of England. 



Owing to various circumstances which need not be explained, 

 because they would not be interesting to the reader, it was 

 my good fortune when a boy to see odd days of sport in various 

 parts of the country during Christmas or Easter holidays. 

 With me, when visiting any place away from home, my instant 

 desire was to see something of the neighbouring hunt, and 

 I have recollections of an Easter vacation spent in the Isle 

 of Wight, when I had several days with the Isle of Wight 

 Foxhounds; of a Christmas visit to Hastings, when for about 

 a month I hunted with the East Sussex; and also of being 

 in Penzance one Easter time, when I saw the Western in the 

 field. The Isle of Wight hunting I remember little about, 

 beyond the fact that I had a fall and came down in a bed 

 of nettles, which was a most irritating experience. The East 

 Sussex I saw — I think — in the last year of Mr. H. M. Curteis's 

 mastership, and my recollections are chiefly of biggish wood- 

 lands and a great deal of timber jumping. I became familiar 

 with the Sussex " heave " gate, which is to be found in this 

 and adjoining countries, and I remember being knocked over 

 at a fence by a groom on a runaway roan; but I cannot call 

 to mind that I saw any hunt of exceptional merit, and there 

 were fewer foxes than I was accustomed to see found with 

 the northern packs I had hunted with. The Western country, 

 at least that part which I saw, was very bleak and wild, and 



