CHAPTER XI 
FOXES AND THE EVERLASTING QUESTION 
How some foxes were well looked after—No cause, no conflict—Give 
and take—Commercial aspect of hunting and shooting—The fox- 
tax—Suggestions—Foxes and partridges—Rabbits, foxes, and 
birds—Which pays the labourer best, hunting or shooting? 
Ir is not difficult to guess what sort of heads 
keepers would demand, if favoured after the manner 
of Herod’s niece, when partridges and pheasants 
are sitting. Enough to say that the heads would 
have long pointed noses, and that the keepers 
themselves would be quite willing to perform the 
office of executioner. This reminds me of the 
eccentric custom of a keeper who now has followed 
his foxes to unearthly hunting-grounds. He pre- 
ceded me years ago on an estate on which foxes 
were supposed to be well looked after. And it 
seemed, from all accounts, that this old keeper 
looked after them right well. It came about that 
he was leaving. Shortly before he was to leave 
he happened to be passing the time of day with a 
shepherd. The shepherd remarked casually that 
he wondered what there was in a hollow oak in the 
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