Carlisle Patriot 01 June 1844 01 June 1844 Lord Thanet's Fox

01 June 1844 Lord Thanet's Fox

The late Earl of THANET was in the habit of removing every year, with his hunters and hounds, from Hothfield, near Ashford, in Kent, to another seat he had in Westmorland. A short time previous to one of these removals a fox had been run to earth near Hothfield, and upon being dug out he proved to be so extraordinary large and a fine one that Lord THANET directed it to be conveyed to Westmorland. In the course of the next season  a fox was run to earth again at Hothfield, and upon being dug out the huntsmen, whippers-in, and the earth-stoppers, all declared that it was the same fox which had been taken into Westmorland, as it had an unusually large white blaze on its forehead.        Lord THANET was exceedingly energetic in his expressions of disbelief of his people, but they persisted in their assertions; and having ear-marked the fox, he was again taken into Westmorland, and turned loose in the neighbourhood of Appleby Castle.        In hunting the next season at Hothfield a fox was killed at that place, which proved to be the one in question, and which had thus twice found its way from Westmorland to Kent. By what instinct or exertions of its faculties the animal was enabled to do this (the distance from one place to the other being above 320 miles,) it is not easy to form an idea. Its well known cunning would, one might suppose, be of little avail in such an emergency, except in enabling it to procure food.                     -Chester Chronicle.

 

< Prev		Next >