OVER THE BORDER 285 



countries, we cross a ploughed field with the com- 

 fortable feeling that, bar a boundary fence, we may- 

 look for an easy jump out, here we find the fence just 

 of the same type as that between two grass fields. It 

 is only right to add that the plough is not, as a rule, 

 of a very deep or holding kind. 



The coverts vary, except that gorse coverts are few 

 and far between. Foxes are generally found in the 

 shrubberies and woods adjoining gentlemen's seats, or 

 as they are here called, the " policies " of the house, 

 or else in the fir strips scattered about the country, 

 which afford good covert for their first ten years, and 

 practically none for the next quarter of a century. 

 Probably for this reason, the meet is almost invariably 

 at such a house — never at an inn ; but, by the way, 

 there are few wayside inns, and that, when you come 

 to think of it, deprives Scottish hunting of a familiar 

 concomitant of our own chase. Who has not been 

 glad of a glass of beer and a bucket of gruel, for man 

 and horse respectively, on a long ride home ? 



Whilst the hunting field in Scotland may be de- 

 scribed as similar to our own, but containing less of 

 the professional class, and, in my experience, no cleric 

 of any denomination and but a small proportion of 

 farmers, there is an item which strikes one at once by 

 its absence, if the bull be excusable. There are no 

 *' foot people " — a class in England containing some 

 of the very best sportsmen out. For the Irish 

 *' wrecker" type I have considerably less liking; but 

 many a ''bhoy" loses his day's pay for a "hunt" 

 with no interested motive at all. No Scotsman does 

 this, not I think really from pecuniary motives, but 

 merely because he feels no desire to join in the sport. 

 The apathetic attitude of ploughmen, fencers, and 



