SPORT IN THE SIXTIES 25 



fox coverts grow up from saplings to tall trees. I 

 might mention Casthorpe covert by Belvoir, which 

 was planted by the late Duke of Rutland to blot 

 out the view of a fallow field from the Castle, as he 

 liked to see nothing but grass. Then there is 

 Sherbrooke's covert, about which Lord Forester 

 had to be consulted as to the site, and Mr. Sher- 

 brooke paid for the planting of it, some twelve 

 acres or more of thorn and gorse. The gorse soon 

 sprang up, but the thorns took twenty years or 

 more before they were good covert. When 1 

 came as huntsman to the Duke's country one of 

 the first things I took in hand was the improve- 

 ment of the fox coverts, which had been sadly 

 neglected, the sticks had been chopped down and 

 laid, which is the worst possible plan, because they 

 are full of rotten thorns, very bad for the hounds 

 to get amongst ; so I had them all cleared out and 

 burned. When Mr. Henry Chaplin hunted the 

 Burton country, he had all his coverts brushed, 

 and very good it made them. Young thorns 

 should be topped just as long as you can get a man 

 to go amongst them, if not they grow up like 

 kidney-bean sticks, harbour starlings, and no grass 

 will grow at bottom. Thorns and grass grow well 

 together, and make the best of fox ground ; old 

 thorns soon spring up again when chopped down, 

 but newly-planted thorns take a long time to get a 

 start, and privet wants frequently topping or else 

 it soon grows out. In conclusion," Gillard remarked, 

 as he put the old hunting-horn back again on to the 

 mantelpiece, where it stands as an ornament with 



