CUB-HUNTING. 163 



with eager sportsmen and fine studs ; nearly every 

 hunting-box is already secured, and those intending 

 to locate themselves in this best of all places for 

 enjoying hunting should lose no time in making their 

 arrangements. 



Fortunately, there is no occasion for those with 

 large studs to seek for means of killing time ; as they 

 can always enjoy a good gallop every day in the 

 week, either with the Duke of Rutland's pack in the 

 Belvoir country or the Cottesmore, who are kennelled 

 at Barleythorpe, in the centre of one of the best, if 

 not the very best, hunting countries, boasting of some 

 of the finest gorse covers in the world, the celebrated 

 Ranksborough Gorse for one. The most able per- 

 formers in " the pigskin " will find that it will take 

 them all their time to live with hounds should they 

 run in the direction of Teigh, a line of country not to 

 be excelled, and offering an opportunity of testing the 

 powers of the water- jumpers of the stud when the 

 Whissendine comes in the way, for it is a wide stream, 

 with rotten banks, which require to be negotiated 

 with care. As " Nimrod " pointed out many years 

 since, it is often, and will be found this year certainly, 

 a bumper stream; and "smooth glides the water where 

 the brook is deep," as many an ardent sportsman has 

 found to be the case when trying his hand at jumping 

 it on a shifty nag or a horse that is a little blown or 

 somewhat tired, after half-an-hour's racing across the 

 big pastures, when the fox is making for the well- 

 known cover, Woolwell Head. Above all things, I say 

 to those intending to ride in the shires, see to the con- 

 dition of your horses ; for if they are not right well 

 up to the mark you will not only be unable to live 



L 2 



