"TEMPORA MUTANTUR." 91 



responsibility attached to their situations, and that 

 farmers, and those employed by them, from want of 

 knowledge of an art which is a clever one, will 

 cause much mischief; and I fear that the fox of 

 1886 cuts a worse figure than he did in 1830, and 

 for many years before and after that remote date. 



Foxes are, perhaps, of all cunning animals the most 

 cunning, ''and cunning as a fox," whether applied to 

 men or animals, means that they are down to every 

 move, and what is called up to snuff. What can 

 illustrate this more than the fact, which, no doubt, 

 many besides myself have observed, that coverts for 

 a great distance may be drawn blank ; at last a fox 

 is found ; sweet music, as a natural consequence, fills 

 the air, and in the very coverts where no fox was 

 to be found, two or three, or even more, are soon 

 on foot. Where have they been ? Where have they 

 stowed themselves away ? I have sometimes thought 

 that they must get up into the trees, but, as no one 

 has ever seen a fox climb like a squirrel, that cannot 

 be the case. They do, however, get themselves out 

 of the way at times when they are most wanted 

 in a most marvellous and unaccountable manner. 



I remember the Lothian hounds at a meet at 

 Hopetown House, in Linlithgowshire, drawing a 



