200 PRANKS OF YOUNG TOX-HOUNDS. 



glad to find, from a whipper-in who had been a 

 season in Scotland, that there are some specimens 

 of the old greyhound fox to be found there, 

 which could run before a fast pack of hounds for 

 three or four hours, and beat them at last ; and 

 to show how extensively the little red fox has been 

 dispersed over Great Britain, he informed me that 

 in one part of their hunting country they met 

 with many of this species which had been im- 

 ported from France, and turned down by a late 

 Master of the hounds, and they would scarcely 

 run at all, dodging about (to use his own expres- 

 sion) like rabbits. 



He also gave me an instance of the wild pranks 

 sometimes played by young fox-hounds. They were 

 out at exercise one day, before regular business com- 

 menced, with these juveniles, when the huntsman's 

 horse (a young one also) turned restive, threw him, 

 and then galloped away. The young hounds, ripe 

 for mischief, immediately gave chase, and ran their 

 master's horse full cry for three or four miles, 

 until they were all stopped together in a village. 

 But the most extraordinary part of the story is 

 that not a hound was kicked or injured by the 

 horse. After this little divertissement, it is almost 

 needless to state that the youthful hopes of the 

 family, or pack, became exceedingly fractious, and 



