240 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



hunting day, either before the foxes have left or after they 

 have returned in fact, and I had proof of this onJy two or 

 three years ago. I was staying with a friend to see a pack that 

 ,was new to me, and they drew his covert — a large oak wood 

 with a hazel bottom — blank. My friend was much annoyed ^ 

 and when he returned from hunting — ^we had come home early, 

 and there was still an hour of daylight^ — he walked up to the 

 earth and found it closed. He opened it, and retired some 

 eighty yards to a coign of vantage among the hazels, and we 

 had not been watching the earth a quarter of an hour when a 

 fox appeared. We then left the place, and passing through 

 the wood caught up two small boys, who, it appeared, were 

 the children of the coachman. What were they doing in the 

 covert my friend asked, and they told him they went that 

 way and returned to and from school. " Do you ever see any- 

 one in the wood? " they were asked. " Only ," mean- 

 ing the keeper ; " he was going up the path this morning as we 

 went to school." This was a clear case of a morning instead 

 of an overnight stop, and the keeper heard a good deal about 

 it, with the result that the covert was not drawn blank again 

 that season. The professional, as far as I have known him, 

 did his work very thoroughly, if in a somewhat limited area; 

 but hig days were numbered when the era of big shoots set in, 

 for the average modern keeper would not even allow the earth- 

 stopper on his ground, instead of helping him as many of the 

 old keepers did. To me when a boy it was an unmixed delight 

 to go the rounds with the earth-stopper, and I well remember 

 that not only did the keeper on the estate where he began go 

 with him and help with a series of stops, but that, somewhere 

 about midnight we used tO' be joined by the keeper on the 

 next beat. When the work was over the professional cam© 

 back with me, and we spent the early hours of the morning 

 in a warm harness room, where a long settle and a bundle of 

 rugs for a pillow did duty instead of a bed. 



Another change of some importance which has gradually 

 been brought about in some, but by no means in all hunting 

 countries, is the difficulty which the Mastetr has in finding 

 covert® in which autumn hunting is freely allowed, and where 

 there is no question of " hounds must not come until after 

 the first, second, or even the third shoot." As regards this 



