142 TWO BREEDS OF FOXES 



three a fortnight, has no business in a hunting establish- 

 ment. Style and pace, however, being the chief considera- 

 tion now-a-days, it would be vain to expect young and 

 fast men to listen to the voice of experience, although 

 for their information I will add that in a three-days-a- 

 week provincial country I found ten horses sufficient for 

 myself and two whippers-in, even in my fast days, and 

 the country we hunted was a severe one for men, hounds, 

 and horses. 



Having ventured to express an opinion that foxes in 

 those times were not only superior, but of a different 

 breed to those now in circulation through the majority 

 of hunting countries, I was 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 imported 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 expression) like 

 rabbits. 



He also gave me an instance of the wild pranks some- 

 times played by young fox-hounds. They were out at 

 exercise one day, before regular business commenced, 

 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 



