GORSE COVERTS. 359 



this kind becomes hollow at the bottom in time. Although 

 Midland hedges consist chiefly of hawthorn ; blackthorn is 

 generally found in coverts. Gorse and thorns mixed form 

 a capital covert. The great majority of coverts in the 

 Melton district consist of thorns, as for instance, Clawson 

 Thorns, Hose Thorns, Sherbrook's covert, and in nearly all 

 the coverts of the Belvoir country, except the ' heath ' 

 coverts, which are of gorse. Cream Gorse, Thrussington 

 Gorse, Barkby Holt, Scraptoft Gorse, Adam's Gorse, Mundy's 

 Gorse, Grimston Gorse, Lord Morton's Gorse, John O'Gaunt, 

 Fish Ponds, and the Coplow comprise almost all the gorses 

 in the Quorn country on the Melton side. Welby is partly 

 gorse and partly thorns. Grimston Gorse should be called 

 Brudenell's Gorse, because the late Lord Cardigan, then 

 Lord Brudenell, made it. A stick (stakes and faggots) 

 covert is often used as a makeshift while the blackthorn is 

 growing. There is, for example, the Kilworth Sticks near 

 North Kilworth. Sticks in a covert will of course require 

 to be renewed from time to time." 



" The Garden and Woodland " editor of The Field, in 

 answering a correspondent who asks what is the best way to 

 prevent gorse coverts from getting open at the bottom, replies 

 as follows : " The only way to keep gorse from growing tall 

 and becoming naked at the bottom is to keep it topped when 

 young. You might chop down your covert in sections, leaving 

 the stumps a foot or so in height. If this is done in Spring, 

 say February or March, it will soon break out again. Some 

 old coverts we had to deal with were burned in alternate 

 sections, and the ground chopped over and fresh seed 

 sown." 



The fact that a covert is dry and faces to the south will 

 greatly conduce to the comfort of foxes residing in it. George 

 Carter, the famous huntsman of the Fitzwilliam, was a strong 

 advocate of having, when practicable, a ditch guarded by 



