14 JANUARY 1928, Page 18

[To the Editor' of the SPECTATOR.]

• Sia,—Many of your correspondents have written of hunting from what they consider may be the fox's point. of view,. but no one yet has attempted to "get inside the mind" of the fox. as naively as did the author of the following description of a run, Which I came across recently in the Cole MSS. in the British Museum (Add. MS; 5810) :—

" The Earl of Egmont hired Mx. Holworthy's house [at Elsworth, !Cambe] as• a hunting seat, being a good fox-hunting country. ! • Last Monday morning about 8" o'clock, Lord 'Egmcint's hounds threw off at Weavly Wood, and found immediately. They ran cover for about 10 minutes, when the fox was viewed away • making for a wood called the Dewy, but being headed em he got to . it, be turned up for Hardwiek fipimiey, and leaving it at a small . distance upon his right, proceeded endways for Toseland, through Toseland Goss, and. skirted Toseland Wood.

His point was Offord, but within half a mile of it he was headed again by a p40k of beagles : a circumstance Which seemed to put him in mind that Papworth earth should be explored, and though . upwind, and distant six -miles, he determined to try. Through Gravely Gap, and over that open country where not a twig presents itself to annoy a hound, he ventured gallantly; till simimmg up the distance he was from his object, and comparing it with that Which the hounds were from theirs, he melancholy sunk the wind; and hastening to the River side, just opposite to ,Brampton, declared his failing vigour. There gently crawling on the bank, with difficulty reached the close of, Colonel .Clarke in Godmanchester,.vihere to the joy. of the sporting crew, and after a chace of 2 hrs 40 miss, with one check of 5 mine intervening, he breathed his last. February 902, 1771."

Rofant Cottage, Northwood, Middlesex. . .