4 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. 



which often carries a good scent, and so proverbial has 

 been the sport on the Warwickshire Fridays that you may 

 expect to see the best of it before January, because hounds 

 have, in the early part of the season, killed nearly all the 

 best foxes. The country between Stratford-on-Avon and 

 Alcester, and between there and Henley-in-Arden, com- 

 prises the fine woodlands of the Warwickshire Hunt. 



In the country before mentioned, above Edge Hill, the 

 fences are small, but sometimes you may come to a big one, 

 and to some large bottoms. The Vale carries the best 

 scent, but as a rule Warwickshire never carries a first class 

 scent unless it has been thoroughly wet through. It is a 

 practicable country to ride over, but there are some parts 

 of it surrounding Shuckburgh Hill over which no horse 

 can be ridden anything like straight, any more than over 

 the Skeffington Yale of High Leicestershire. It is not 

 much subject to be Hooded, although the rivers Avon, 

 Leam, and Stour run through it. Foxes do not often cross 

 the Avon, and there are several fords and bridges over the 

 Stour ; but for want of these advantages the Leam is very 

 difficult to cross, and hounds, after crossing it, have on 

 several occasions had the best of a run. We think that 

 Warwickshire, next to J^eicestershire, takes rank with 

 Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire in the first class of the 

 hunting countries of England ; and it is not too much to 

 say that, taking into consideration its famous pack of 

 hounds, so well hunted as they have been by the Master, 

 and the size of the field, which is small by comparison to 

 that which is seen in the three above-mentioned Shires, it 

 is the best country in which to see sport, and those who live 

 within reach of the Warwickshire Hounds may say with 



Horace, 



Ille terrarr.m, milii prater ouiue.s, 

 Angulus ridet, 



for when the whole world has been seen, there is no other 

 country so perfect as England, and no place like home — pro- 

 vided that home is in Warwickshire. One of Warwick- 

 shire's chief charms, as a hunting country, lies in the varied 



