3 8o THE SHIRES AND THEIR FENCES. 



the bottom of their respective furrows, varies from about 

 eighteen inches to three feet six. It appears that in the 

 time of the Commonwealth, Leicestershire was all plough. 

 There is a great difference in the ability of horses to cross 

 ridge-and-furrow. Some, usually the short legged, compact 

 sort, quickly learn to glide over it with the facility of a fox ; 

 and others, usually young horses, insist on jumping each 

 furrow, instead, as they ought to do, of taking the furrows 

 in their stride, which they should regulate for this purpose. 

 Galloping across ridge-and-furrow greatly tries the forelegs 

 and shoulders of horses that are heavy in front. It is also 

 particularly irritating to the tempers of most young horses, 

 and especially of animals imported from abroad. 



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 Ireland and in several provincial counties. 



