Scarlet, 367 



drove into the York and Ainsty. The most beautiful 

 fox that ever came to London, is said to have been 

 one which was trapped in a Norfolk warren ; and 

 perhaps the biggest ever seen in Yorkshire was 

 one killed in Will Danby's time, in a thirty-five 

 minutes from Skipworth Common to Barlow Vil- 

 lage. Foxes might well prosper in Holderness, as 

 on more than one occasion old James Stavely, who 

 was a sort of amateur guardian of Hatfield Whin, did 

 not scruple to square his good wife with a new gown 

 or a work-box, and then kill her chickens for the cubs, 

 out of pure philanthropy. He argued that it was better 

 for the interests of sport that he should give them her 

 chickens, than that they should eat their own dam, as 

 cubs in some few instances, one of them in Oldwick 

 Wood, have been known to do if she can bring them 

 no food. His heart fairly bled with sympathy 

 when he heard of the boast of the Cottam Warren 

 guardian, thathe had killed eighty brace of Sir Tatton's 

 in two years, and that the more foxes Tom Carter 

 brought through it the better, as he was " sure to have 

 them as they come back." The Sledmere Whin fox 

 fell into nobler hands, as Mr. Foljambe brought him 

 back as the best trophy of his brief visit with his 

 hounds to that country. He was as handsome a fox 

 as was ever killed in Yorkshire, with white pads, 

 throat, and breast, and white up to the hocks and 

 under the belly, and his head, we believe, still hangs 

 in the entrance hall at Osberton. 



Will Long had also a celebrated piebald friend, who 

 was known as " Old Bald," for three or four seasons, 

 and was then wantonly shot. They were never done 

 seeing his white face and neck going as straight as a 

 line from Toxley ; and the veteran Will Baker used 

 regularly to say, " Vve got Old Bald for you agam'' 

 On one occasion he jumped up by the side of a pond 

 near the cover, and the delight of the old sportsman 

 was so great, that he set off when he had gasped out 



