Related article: Given Bactroban Nasal a bright autumn day or a clear frosty winter morning, what better news can reach those Bactroban Nose of us poor mortals who live in a remote country district (unable to afford the luxury of a hack) than the intelligence of a badger being ** at home." It was my good fortune to be staying lately in the west country, at a small village half-way between Dorchester and Sherborne, on the verge of the Blackmoor Vale, a quaint old world place, well sheltered under Bactroban Nasal Ointment the downs, Bactroban 2 Cream and above all in the midst of one of the finest sporting counties in the south. My host (an honest, hard- working publican, with a small holding of his own, a keen sports- man, of whom one can truly quote an old west country tag, ** He is just the sort of fellow to keep a fox in his parlour for us, and feed him with canaries ! ") roused me at daybreak with the exciting news that a badger had been tracked to an earth some two miles off. Leaving me to swallow a hasty breakfast, he asked me to follow on with one or two of his neighbours and their dogs. I myself had a hard-bitten terrier, wire-haired, with a touch of bull in his blood, one which had often gone to earth with a fox, and had occasionally worked with a pack of otter hounds. Arrived at the scene of action I found my host dispensing beer to some three or four labourers, to whom was deputed the honour of digging out our friend. Promptly setting to work we sent a terrier to ground, an old " Parliamentary " hand, who knew what was Bactroban For Acne ex- pected of him, i.e,, not to face ** Mr. Badger," but to stick to his Bactroban Mrsa hind quarters, giving tongue all the time, so as to enable the men to di^ down to the pipe (a west- country term for one or other of the badger's dwelling-rooms), Mupirocin Bactroban and also to keep him from digging. In sandy soil it is an acknow^- ledged fact that a badger can bury himself quicker than three or four men can dig over him. In all we used seven dogs in turn before we were near to our quarry, having dug some 7 to 8 feet through chalk. Then came a piece of science, where a knowledge of otter hunting was useful, viz., in ** tailing " the badger. My worthy host, with the aid of a spade, managed this feat admirably, bringing up a badger which weighed about 30 lbs. Without more ado we Bactroban Acne put this gentleman down, giving him some 100 yards law in the open, and slipped Bactroban 2 a dozen terriers, most of them the wire-haired variety. To my astonishment I found that the badger, snapping from right to left, inflicting severe punishment, was getting away from the terriers without a scratch, until one of the Bactroban Price men running up Bactroban In Nose hit him over the snout with Bactroban Cream 2 a crow-bar, giving the coup de grdce. It was pointed out to me afterwards that there is practically only one vital spot in the badger at the mercy of dogs, and that even a pack of fox-hounds will not roll one over unless there might be one who had tackled the same before. The badger's skin is like parchment, and practically impenetrable to a terrier's teeth. An old sheep dog of the true breed is about . the only dog who can neatly turn him over, fixing the belly, which is the only vulnerable part. Having an impression of the foulness of the badger's habits, I was agreeably surprised, on ex- amining the earth, to note his 1899.] THE HUNT BALL. 19 cleanly ways, each " pipe " being used for different purposes. A dozen badger skins, properly dressed, niake a splendid carriage rug, impenetrable even Bactroban Ointment Nasal by a Scotch mist. It seems a pity that a war of extermination should be carried on against this interesting animal. Naturalists now admit that he is more sinned against than sinning, being an inveterate enemy to mice, rats, moles and hoc omtu genus. Consequently a friend to the farmers. It would be interesting to learn in how many English Bactroban Buy counties the badger still exists. In Scotland he is believed to be almost extinct, owing to the bitter and prejudiced action of the gentle- men in velveteen, doubtless with the consent of their employers. Philocunos. The Hunt Ball. It is curious to note that in the otherwise comprehensive ** Bad- minton '* volume concerned with dancing, no mention is made of that essentially English insti- tution, the Hxmt Ball ; possibly, therefore, a few words concern- ing the origin and evolution of these important social fixtures will not be out of place at this time of year. Like the sport which suggested them, the date of their systematisation would ap- pear to be extremely obscure, although as early as 161 7 Hey- wood's play, "A Woman Killed by Kindness," mentions as a favourite dance one entitled " Hunting of the Fox,'* which may, possibly, have had some- thing to do with the convivial evenings indulged in by our seven- teenth century fox-hunters. To come to more enlightened times, viz., the commencement of the present century, it is evi- dent that the hunt ball was no- thing more than a piece of courtesy extended by the master of a pack, at his own private expense, as a kind of quid pro quo to the farmers and Purchase Bactroban small proprietors over whose land he rode, being, in fact, a festive gathering for all the humbler followers and dependents of the hunt, where the wives and daughters of the squireens, farmers, yeomen, and sporting tradesfolk, &c., had an oppor- tunity given them of airing their hue feathers, and of partaking in all the enjoyments of a real dance, unaccompanied by the frigid eti- quette and atmosphere of exclu- siveness that characterised most of county balls a hundred years ago. For Nasal Bactroban those, it should be remembered, were the palmy days of Almack's, when, it is said, three-fourths of the nobility knocked at its doors in Bactroban Ointment vain ; and Buy Bactroban when Mrsa Bactroban also, all Bactroban Mupirocin over the country, foolish attempts at aping the manners of the grand London ball-patronesses were being per- petuated.