[71 ] 



happened to be a good scenting day, the 

 last day in October. The hounds held well 

 to their fox for two hours, and killed him in 

 the centre of the covert, and eat him ; the 

 consequence was, the next time we met at 

 the same covert, the animal broke as soon 

 as the hounds were put into it ; and we had 

 from thence seven good runs over a coun- 

 try, and killed each time, in the course of 

 the season. In coverts or gorses of a mo- 

 derate size, known to be good for sport and 

 certainty of finding, you must act quite the 

 reverse ; and not only avoid drawing them, 

 or disturbing them as little as possible, but 

 if you should have the misfortune to kill a 

 fox in either, get the fox out as soon as 

 possible, and on no account allow the 

 hounds to eat him in it. I have known in- 

 stances of hounds killing and eating a fox in 

 a favourite covert, the consequence of which 

 has been that they have not found there 

 the whole season afterward. Nothing is so 



