Scarlet, 365 



Mr. Horlock also introduced some forty brace of 

 Holland foxes, very lengthy, " with ears like donkeys," 

 and very thick brushes. They had nothing of the 

 phlegmatic character of their country of dykes about 

 them, and were nearly as good as his Cliffe Wood fox, 

 which was found three or four times a season for four 

 seasons, and went as straight as a line each time for 

 Rookeley. Harry Ayris also ran one for four or five 

 seasons from Haselton Grove to Iford, and he will 

 have it that Jem Hills brought him back past Hasel- 

 ton Grove to Chedworth Woods. 



It has always been a saying in the The Heythrop 

 Heythrop, " better by half shoot a child Foxes. 

 than kill a fox I' but alas! one of the finest of them 

 was once found drowning in a trap, and his stuffed 

 remains are in Jem Hill's parlour as a warning to evil 

 doers. The Brewin are the largest forest foxes, and 

 have very long legs, and a great deal of white about 

 them. Sometimes it comes out very prominently in 

 a particular year, and extends to stockings up to the 

 knee. " The Forester " was one of the best of his 

 clan, and for three seasons he defied Jem's wiles, but 

 the last day of the 1856-57 season from Oddingly 

 Ashes was fatal to him, and he was headed at the 

 earths near the Cider Wells, after an hour and a 

 quarter, and killed. Jem got two or three very red 

 Irishmen, but they did not like his look at all, and, on 

 further consideration, decided to emigrate, nobody 

 knew where. 



It has always been a joke of Jem's ^ „.. , 

 against Harry Ayris that his foxes are 

 "of the squirrel sort;" but seeing that Jem's own 

 have become so terrified of him, that they have lately 

 felt compelled to reside in the trees at Middle Aston 

 Gardens, thirty feet from the ground, we do not 

 expect that he can throw a stone at the Berkeley 

 foxes again, fond as they have always been of climb- 

 ing. The Shropshire foxes had once the same habit ; 



