THE FOX AS VERMIN'.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEl "SPECTATOR."] SIB,—The writer of the article, "The Fox and the Law," in your issue of November 9th, has surely missed the local allusion in Sir Walter Seott's lines which he quotes. On the
bens and moors of the Highlands, as well as on the hill. pasture and game preserves of the southern counties of Sir Walter's native land, "Whoever reeked where, how or when The prowling fox was trapped or slain?'
There the fox is nothing but the most mischievous vermin, to be exterminated by all means. He is the dangerous foe of the shepherd and the sportsman. Where the "chase,” as followed in England, is impossible, no Highland gamekeeper is *worth his wage who is not a skilful fox-trapper. I know one gentleman at least who spends his holidays harrying foxes in their mountain cairns with a pack of terriers, which he maintains for the purpose, and a band of trusty gillies. During the lambing and nesting season in Argyll and Perth- shire there are more demands for his help from flockmasters and gamekeepers than he can comply with. "Donald the fox-hunter," a worthy whom I met in Glencoe some years ago, did not appear in all the glory of " pink " and buckskin, but was more like a tramp or a poacher than anything else.—I am,
[The same attitude towards the fox prevails, of course, in the mountains of Wales. When the present writer bought in Merionethshire the best trotting pony he has ever backed, be was assured that he was "a. magnificent pony whatever to hunt a fox." This turned out to mean as an assistant at a bat Jae, where a body of keepers, armed with guns, held a craggy mountain rampart to which foxes were driven by the dozen, by a line of men on mountain ponies. It was difficult to suppress the exclamation," C'est magnifique, mais re nest pas la chasse."—ED. Spectator.'
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