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ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS BY THE 
There is a great difference of opinion as to the number of which 
a litter of cubs is composed. Experts tell us that the number never 
exceeds five, or at most six, but I knew of two litters this year, one 
of seven and another of eight. I can vouch for the truth of this 
statement, for they were born and bred on my own place, and I 
have counted them and watched them play at the mouth of the 
earth. Such a large family as eight, however, is of rare occurrence. 
Some years ago I did see eight cubs together outside an earth, but 
these were palpably two separate families of four, both being 
nurtured by the same mother, and that this was the case was proved 
by the discovery a short time before of a vixen fox hard by with a 
trap on her leg and in articulo mortis. A near neighbour of ours 
once recounted a touching incident connected with a fox. The 
mother, who was bringing up a young family, either died or was 
killed, and the dog fox, as far as he was able, performed the maternal 
duties, foraged for his children, and apportioned their food, but the 
woe-begone appearance which his knavish countenance presented, 
and the piteous whines to which he gave vent from time to time, 
told but too plainly how keenly he felt his loss. 
Eoxes are exceedingly fleet of foot, and I have seen a fox and a 
hound start from a covert in close proximity, each going at topmost 
speed, and at the end of about 300 yards the fox was 60 or 70 yards 
ahead ; in fact were it not for the condition of one and the want of 
it in the other the fox would almost invariably escape the fangs of 
his relentless pursuers. It is extraordinary the shifts to which a 
sinking fox is put, and the crafty wiles he will use in order to 
escape his fate. I have known foxes to climb trees, ricks, and 
barns, jump through open and indeed closed windows, take refuge 
in wine cellars, and even mount staircases and hide under beds. 
This latter incident took place with the Old Berkeley Hounds last 
year at Bushey. The hounds had lost their fox, and it was only 
some little while afterwards that he was seen to emerge from his 
unusual hiding-place. On one occasion, in the Midland Counties, 
I saw a fox that had been on foot for a considerable time some 200 
or 300 yards in front of hounds; on arriving at the fence which 
skirted the field, he came back a little way, and crouched down in 
the open in the hope that the dash of the hounds might carry them 
over and beyond him, which was just what happened as regards the 
three or four leading couples, but, alas! he moved, the body of the 
pack saw him, and what was in the pride of the morning a stout 
hill fox soon became one hundred “tatters of brown!” I once 
