The life of a fox written by himself . rs duringtheir absence, and unaware of the disappointmentthese keepers create to hundreds of gentlemenwho reside in the country, who keep large estab-lishments of horses for the express purpose ofhunting, and whose money might otherwise bespent in more questionable ways in town or else-where. I have heard the following lines recited by one CHESTERS STORY 91 who said that they ought to be put up over themantelpiece of every farmer in the kingdom :— Attend, ye farmers, to this tale, And when ye mend the broken rail, Reflect with pleasure on a sport That lur
The life of a fox written by himself . rs duringtheir absence, and unaware of the disappointmentthese keepers create to hundreds of gentlemenwho reside in the country, who keep large estab-lishments of horses for the express purpose ofhunting, and whose money might otherwise bespent in more questionable ways in town or else-where. I have heard the following lines recited by one CHESTERS STORY 91 who said that they ought to be put up over themantelpiece of every farmer in the kingdom :— Attend, ye farmers, to this tale, And when ye mend the broken rail, Reflect with pleasure on a sport That lures your landlord from the court. To dwell and spend his rents among The country folk from whom they sprung; And should his steed with tramphng feet Be urged across your tender wheat. That steed, perchance, by you was bred. And yours the corn by which hes fed. Ah ! then restrain your rising ire. Nor rashly curse the hunting squire.—Warburton. So, Devonian, tell us thy history, for methinkstwill be something strange. DEVONIANS STORY. Y story must needs bea short one. In myown country I amcalled The BoldDragoon, and asevery name either hasor ought to have aparticular meaning, Iam so called in con-sequence of havingonce been in the possession of a certain captain ofdragoons Avho lived in the far West. These aremy facts. I was born and bred in a wild part ofDevonshire, and when a year old fell into thepossession of a keeper. To state exactly how sucha thing happened might sometimes be inconvenient,as in hunting countries a man scarcely dares to con-fess the crime of capturing a fox, for lucre at here the keeper, thinking me remarkable for DEVONIANS STORY 93 size and strength, carried me to Captain T ,^ who sent me off immediately as a present to Templar, the master of a pack of small fox-hounds at Stover in Devonshire, and I was carriedinto a dark and gloomy place, which had been atfirst intended for a large stable, and was aboveseventy feet in length, and nearly
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectfoxhunt, bookyear1920
