LEICESTERSHIRE FENCES 



101 



scarcely room for a horse to land between them ; it was 

 therefore necessary to take them obliquely, which was 

 an inducement to many horses to refuse, and which 

 they would do, unless the riders were gifted with super- 

 latively good hands and their horses with delicate 

 mouths. Clearing both flights at once was in many 

 instances impracticable in consequence of their height 

 and width. Some of these fences were remaining in 

 1826, and the worst fall I ever experienced was at one 

 of them. I was riding a very resolute horse, and put 

 him at the rails slowly, to induce him to jump in and 

 out, but he attempted to fly them at one effort, conse- 

 quently he fell on the second rail, and, rolling over me, 

 I was very nearly crushed. The principal timber fences 

 now to be encountered, exclusive of gates, are in the 

 gaps or weak parts of the hedges, placed there to pro- 

 tect the quick ; and the bullfinches, although many of 

 them are strong, especially in the Harborough side, are 

 not to be compared with those in the Pytchley country. 

 Most of the quickset fences are placed on the ground ; 

 therefore those difficulties which proceed from false or 

 rotten banks in many other countries are not met with 

 here. The ox-fences, as they are termed, consist of a 

 ditch, quickset-hedge, and a flight of posts and rails, 

 which must be cleared in the stride, to do which 

 requires resolution in both horse and rider; and when 

 the rails happen to be on the furthest side, a fall is a 

 frequent result. The strong thorn fences which abound 

 require horses of great courage ; and good water jumpers 

 are indispensable, for the brooks are numerous, and 

 many of them wide. The Whissendine and the Smite 

 are names known to many by report who are strangers 

 in the country, and are not unfrequently fathomed by 

 those who enjoy their venatic pastime in this aristo- 

 cratic shire. There are numerous others of minor 

 importance, and some which come under the denomina- 

 tion of rivers ; they are of course not negotiable. 

 Fortunately, however, hounds do not very often cross 

 them ; they are not in the run of the foxes. 



