Ernest Benn first edition - 1960
Although this is a short book written for children, the tale does not shy away from 'cruel nature's law' and tackles the killing of rabbits, pheasants and other animals and birds by the young vixen with a lack of sentiment. It is a usual story of the hero - in this case the heroine - not being at the litter when the mother vixen and the other cubs are dug out and carried off (to be handed over to another area where there is hunting by dogs and humans on horseback) from their home in the Lake District.
The exploring cub Vix first meets up with a stoat and steals a rabbit from it. So she followed hidden ways through the big wood - ways that had been trodden by foxes since the wood began. Sometimes she would walk along in the water of a little stream, which helped to wash the scent away. Sometimes she slunk through undergrowth so thick that even a dog would have found it nearly impossible to follow her. The story allows the author to describe other woodland creatures, such as red squirrels, jays, beetles, buzzards, blue tits and partridges. Windsor-Richards was in charge of Brantwood, John Ruskin's old home on the shores of Coniston for many years. Here he did freelance journalism and was a contributor to the northern edition of the News Chronicle on natural history and country pursuits. His other books included Tiercel the Peregrine, Merry Brown Hare and Where the Rushes Grow Green.
The young vixen's first months include being caught by the hind leg in a snare, luckily being released by a young couple; mistakenly trying to catch and eat a hedgehog; filching a salmon from an otter; failing to catch a faster running hare and mesmerising a bewildered rabbit by running around it in ever-decreasing circles. However, Chapter 5 The Hunter Hunted describes her being chased by a Hunt, only just managing to escape by scrambling up the cliff leading to her earth. The final chapter, The Coming of Spring also sees the coming of a big, handsome fox with a lovely, flowing tail. Wrestling with rabbit fur, racing each other through the wood and exchanging mating call, leads first to joint hunting and then to the birth of five squeaking, tugging, grunting little furry bodies...hidden in the green bracken, Vix watched her babies, and her eyes shone with pride and gladness. She was happier than she had ever been in her life. For a youngster reading this story, what's not to like?
One of the delights of the book are the atmospheric illustrations by D.J. Watkins-Pitchford ('B.B.'). There are fourteen full-page drawings - one is shown below - and many more embedded in the text or at the start of each of the six chapters.
This is the last of my 'foxy' novels for awhile. I have two or three more lined up to purchase in the New Year (if they are still available), but I am now returning to two of my favourite nineteenth century authors, R.D. Blackmore and G.P.R. James. I have the former's Perlycross in the first one volume printing - the author's triple-decker firsts are hard to find or are simply too expensive for me. As for G.P.R., there are three novels lined up, all in the first three-volume state: Arabella Stuart, Russell and Beauchamp. I am starting with the latter, set in the early nineteenth century. In addition to the above, I want to read two Eustace Grenville Murray books I bought in the Autumn - Side Lights on English Society: Sketches from Life Social & Satirical (I only have the first of two volumes) and Men of the Second Empire. I will also be returning to my early nineteenth century Scottish novels, where I have over a dozen still to read. As if all the above is not enough, I want to tackle the Northumbrian writer, R.H. Forster's books - I have all of them in first edition - and my batch of Arnold Bennett novels, all in Penguin first printing. Do I also have time for my Crime Book Society paperbacks from the 1930s? We'll see.
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