[S]ome noble sportsmen have, I hear, with a view to improve their [i.e., young foxes'] physique and to initiate them early into training, supplied the young esurients and their mammas and papas with Spratt's dog biscuits, by a due course of which food it may be supposed, theoretically, they would be put on a level with their pursuers so far as condition went, while their wily instincts would be so much weight in their favour in the great handicap 'twixt fox and hound.