OF THE FOX AND OF HIS NATURE
The fox is a common beast and therefore I need not tell of his making
and there be but few gentlemen that have not seen some. He hath many
such conditions as the wolf, for the vixen of the fox bears as long as
the bitch of the wolf bears her whelps, sometimes more sometimes less,
save that the vixen fox whelpeth under the earth deeper than doth the
bitch of the wolf. The vixen of the fox is a saute[93] (in heat) once
in the year. She has a venomous biting like a wolf and their life is
no longer than a wolf's life. With great trouble men can take a fox,
especially the vixen when she is with whelps, for when she is with
whelps and is heavy, she always keeps near her hole, _for sometimes
she whelpeth in a false hole and sometimes in great burrows and
sometimes in hollow trees, and therefore she draweth always near her
burrow_, and if she hears anything anon she goeth therein before the
hounds can get to her. She is a false beast and as malicious as a
wolf.
[93] The term used by Turbervile (p. 188) is "goeth a clicqueting."
The hunting for a fox is fair for the _good cry of_ the hounds[94]
that follow him so nigh and with so good a will. Always they scent of
him, for he flies through the thick wood and also he stinketh
evermore. And he will scarcely leave a covert when he is therein, he
taketh not to the plain (open) country for he trusteth not in his
running neither in his defence, for he is too feeble, and if he does,
it is because he is (forced to) by the strength of men and hounds. And
he will always hold to covert, and if he can only find a briar to
cover himself with, he will cover himself with that. When he sees that
he cannot last, then he goeth to earth the nearest he can find which
he knoweth well and then men may dig him out and take him, if it is
easy digging, but not among the rocks.[95] If greyhounds _give him
many touches and overset him_, his last remedy, if he is in an open
country, will be that he vishiteth gladly (the act of voiding
excrements) so that the greyhounds should leave him for the stink of
the dirt, and also for the fear that he hath.
[94] G. de F., p. 72, says, "because the hounds hunt him closely."
[95] Our MS. only gives this one chapter on the fox, while Gaston
Ph[oe]bus has another: _Comment on doit chassier et prendre le
renard._ In this he gives directions as to earth-stopping, and taking
him in pursenets, and smoking him out with "orpiment and sulphur and
nitre or saltpetre." He says January, February, and March are the best
months for hunting, as the leaf is off the trees and the coverts are
clearer, so that the hounds have more chance of seeing the fox and
hunt him closer. He says that one-third of the hounds should be put in
to draw the covert, and the others in relays should guard the
boundaries and paths, to be slipped as required. Although this is a
Frenchman's account of fox-hunting, we have no reason to believe that
the fox was treated at that period better by English sportsmen, for
until comparatively recent times the fox was accounted vermin, and any
means by which his death could be encompassed were considered
legitimate, his extermination being the chief object in hunting him,
and not the sport. Even as late as the seventeenth century we find
that such treatment was considered justifiable towards a fox, for, as
Macaulay tells us, Oliver St. John told the Long Parliament that
Strafford was to be regarded, not as a stag or a hare, to whom some
law was to be given, but as a fox, who was to be snared by any means,
and knocked on the head without pity (vol. i. p. 149).
A little greyhound is very hardy when (if) he takes a fox by himself,
for men have seen great greyhounds which might well take a hart and a
wild boar and a wolf and would let the fox go. And when the vixen is
assaute, and goeth in her love to seek the dog fox she crieth with a
hoarse voice as a mad hound doth, and also when she calleth her whelps
when she misses any of them, she calleth in the same way. The fox does
not complain (cry) when men slay him, but he defendeth himself with
all his power while he is alive. He liveth on all vermin and all
carrion and on foul worms. His best meat that he most loveth are hens,
capons, duck and young geese and other wild fowls when he can get
them, also butterflies and grasshoppers, milk and butter. They do
great harm in warrens of coneys and of hares which they eat, and take
them so gynnously (cunningly) and with great malice and not by
running. There be some that hunt as a wolf[96] and some that go
nowhere but to villages to seek the prey for their feeding. As I have
said they are so cunning and subtle that neither men nor hounds can
find a remedy to keep themselves from their false turns. Also foxes
commonly dwell in great hedges or in great coverts or in burrows near
some towns or villages for to evermore harm hens and other things as I
have said. The foxes' skins be wonderfully warm to make cuffs and
furs, but they stink evermore if they are not well tawed. The grease
of the fox and the marrow are good for the hardening of sinews. Of the
other manners of the fox and of his cunning I will speak more openly
hereafter. Men take them with hounds, with greyhounds, with hayes and
with purse-nets, but he cutteth them with his teeth, as the male of
the wolf doth but not so soon (quickly).
[96] According to G. de F., p. 74, it should not read that some are
hunted like wolves, but that they themselves hunt like wolves.