THE BADGER 



dispatched. I was witness of a scene in the 

 hunting field with the Cleveland hounds 

 during the mastership of the late Mr. Henry 

 Turner Newcomen, which, however dis- 

 gusting, illustrated the vitality of the badger. 

 We thought we had run a fox to ground in 

 a drain. The terriers were sent for, one was 

 put in to bolt him, but after a quarter of an 

 hour's attempt he came out, having given it 

 up, with severe marks of punishment. One 

 that could be depended on was then dis- 

 patched to ground, and digging operations 

 commenced. As time went on we thought 

 from the sound that it could not be a fox, 

 and presently there was a charge down the 

 drain, and a badger came bouncing and 

 floundering out among the crowd of by- 

 standers, the terrier holding on to him. The 

 other terriers, barking furiously to join in the 

 fray, excited the hounds in an adjoining field ; 

 they broke out past the whips, and nineteen 

 couple were soon at the badger, who was 

 entirely lost to view in the struggling and 

 worrying mass. But he was plying his jaws 

 all the time, as was evidenced by the howls 



37 



