256 



THE FOX. 



ardent wish, to cherish and protect the breed of 

 foxes : — not that I deny, however, a man, once or 

 twice in his life, may be reduced to the repugnant 

 necessity of committing vulpicide or fox-murder. 

 This has been my case: although the act was 

 so imperative in its circumstances, that it did not 

 bring with it the remorse of conscience, which 

 it would have done under different feelings. For, 

 be it known, that, in the eyes of those who love 

 the chase, there can hardly be a more heinous 

 crime, than that of wilfully and maliciously assas- 

 sinating a fox. The base, unpatriotic deed, would 

 doom the remorseless perpetrator of it to everlasting 

 exile in that region, known to all honourable 

 Englishmen, under the name of " Coventry." 



The reader shall now have a brief unvarnished 

 account of what took place here some four or 

 five years ago. Justice to myself, and to the pets 

 which have the range of my park, forced me to 

 become the executioner of the largest and sleekest 

 fox, that, perhaps was ever seen in these Vandal- 

 regions of Yorkshire's West-riding district. 



We have a park wall so high, that neither fox 

 nor hound, can surmount it without assistance. 

 There had been a snow-storm in the morning ; and 

 as the keeper was going his rounds, he observed 

 a sheep-bar commonly so called, reared against 



