The reward paid to keepers from the funds of fox-hunts is a sovereign
for a litter of cubs when hounds come cub-hunting. Ten shillings is
paid for each fox found by hounds. And a florin is the keeper's usual
reward for stopping earths when the meet is within a distance of four
miles. These moneys are paid in round sums on a great occasion in the
keeper's year--the earth-stoppers' dinner. In olden days keepers were
full of resources for benefiting themselves from the hunt funds, while
saving their pheasants' skins from foxes at the same time. The cunning
keeper would induce a huntsman to pay a stealthy unofficial visit to
the home of a litter, and after his departure, when a reward had been
made sure, would quietly take steps to rid himself of fox troubles.
Visiting the earth with a supply of sulphur matches and bags of grass,
he would light the matches within, block the holes with the bags, and
leave the deadly fumes to do their work. Or two keepers would combine
to defraud the hunt. One would show a litter and pocket his sovereign,
then shift the litter to the preserves of his friend, who in turn would
call in the huntsman and pocket his reward, then return the cubs whence
they came; and so the game would go on. Luck plays a great part in this
matter of fox-rewards. It often happens that foxes which have been
harboured honestly by one keeper are found in the preserves of another
who is a vulpicide, yet is not above accepting the reward which really
is the due of his scrupulous friend in the next parish. How to show
foxes to the hunt and pheasants to a shooting party is the prickliest
of all the manifold problems of the gamekeeper's life.
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