PRESIDENT-THE EARL OP CLARENDON. 
11 
knew of a fox which on several occasions had most unaccountably 
escaped his pursuers, until one day it was discovered that at a 
certain spot he leapt up on to a broad yew hedge, about three or 
four feet high, and ran along it for some way as it were in the air, 
thus leaving no trace or scent behind. When a fox has to cross 
a river or a stream he very frequently allows the current to take 
him a long way down the stream, and thus foils the pack by not 
landing upon the further hank immediately opposite where he 
entered the water. I may here say that scent is one of the most 
inexplicable wonders of nature, and those who know best have 
never been able satisfactorily to account for its absence or presence, 
hut it is certain that a fox’s instinct tells him to run down wind as 
a rule, in order that the scent may he conveyed away from and not 
towards those in pursuit. I remember once seeing a pack of hounds 
in the neighbourhood of a pollard willow in the branches of which 
a fox was crouched. The hounds got beyond the control of the 
huntsman and whips, broke loose, and surrounded the tree. The 
fox thinking that flight was the best means of escape, actually 
jumped on the hack of the hounds, gave another spring, and after a 
half-hour’s chase, to the delight of all the sportsmen, lived to run 
another day. 
I could lay before you countless incidents of the chase, hut time 
hardly permits of my doing so. I have already said that mankind 
has much to learn from the brute creation, but it must be confessed 
that in the case of the fox the example is one to be avoided and not 
to he imitated, for except as regards maternal instincts, which are 
strongly developed, this animal is noticeable particularly for its 
low cunning, its wanton destructiveness, and its thievish propensi¬ 
ties, and therefore observation of its habits is less likely to have 
a beneficial effect on character than the method employed for its 
pursuit and capture. 
Prom the remote days of mythology down to the present more 
civilized epoch the love of the chase in all its varieties has been a 
component part of national character. To some nations even now 
this sport is a necessity and a means of livelihood, hut that is not 
the case in England, where our multifarious occupations and trades 
give us the wherewithal to obtain the necessaries of life. The 
weapons, the horses, the whole panoply of the chase which satisfied 
the requirements of our forefathers would he of little practical use 
now. We live now-a-days at a great rate, and everything is done, 
so to speak, by electric telegraph, hut whether with those who 
