358 THE SHIRES AND THEIR FENCES. 



In Leicestershire there is a fair sprinkling of brooks, the 

 most notable being the Whissendine, Twyford, Scalford, Smite, 

 Marefield, Manton, Norton, Staunton and South Croxton 

 brooks ; and there are innumerable "bottoms" which are narrow 

 brooks with a fence on one side. When the fence is on the 

 taking-off side, the jumping of a bottom demands, more 

 than any other fence, that a horse should take his rider's word 

 that there is something on the other side. 



The Midland fences, as we have seen, are essentially 

 hedges, timber, and water ; and there is an almost entire 

 absence of banks and walls, which are respectively the chief 

 obstacles in several provincial counties. 



