THE LIFE OF A FOX. 67

was heard. It afterwards appeared that this
gentleman’s brother had permission to try whether
he could kill with his small pack a fox which
had more than once beaten the large one. The
following season I was surprised one morning,
by hearmg the voices of some different men
with hounds, drawing the wood in which I lay.
I soon moved and went away from the wood;
but was seen by men, who commenced hallooing,
“Gone away.” The hounds were then hunting
another fox in the wood; where they continued all
day without killing him. At length I was found
by them where there was no other fox. They
pursued me for many miles in a most extraordi-
nary way; and such good hunting hounds they
were, that had I not gone down a road where
a flock of sheep had just gone before, unknown
to the huntsmen, I must have been killed. They
there came to a check, and as it was contrary
to Mr. Wyndham’s system to assist his hounds
by holding them forward, they never got near
me again that day. It was very like the system
described by our friend in the New Forest.