COUNTRY LIFE
Bagmen
Both foxhunters and humanitarians have given me much evidence that the enlarging of tame foxes, to which I called attention the other day, is a growing habit ; and is doing injury to the hunts as well as the local poultry yards. The practice has some curious features. In some districts of the west, especially, perhaps, in South Wales, the rabbit trappers have killed off every wild fox and, indeed, most other vermin and most game birds with a considerable tally of dogs and cats. The only recourse of the hunt, if it was not to close down, was to release tame foxes. In one area, known to be cleared of foxes by the trappers, the hunt had a season which was almost the best in the records, so far as killing foxes was concerned. Local gossips say that the trappers, afraid of raising the hostility of the hunt, which is followed by many farmers, take particular care that the advertised wood is not drawn blank.
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