THE CHACE. 
What is termed the bulfinch-fence (still more common in 
these districts) is a quickset hedge of perhaps fifty years' 
growth, with a ditch on one side or the other, and so 
high and strong that horses cannot clear it. The 
sportsman, however, charging this at nearly full speed, 
succeeds in getting to the other side, when the bushes 
close after him and his horse, and there is no more 
appearance of their transit than if a bird had hopped 
through. Horses, unaccustomed to these fences, seldom 
face them well at first ; perhaps nothing short of the 
emulation which animates their riders, and the courage 
created in the noble animals themselves by the presence 
of the hounds, would induce them to face such things at 
all. Timber-fences, such as rails, stiles, and gates, 
but particularly rails, are oftener leaped in Leicestershire 
than in any other country, by reason of the great height 
which the quickset fences attain a height which, in 
some places, nothing but a bird can surmount : brooks 
also abound, amongst the widest of which are the Whis- 
sendine ; the Smite, or Belvoir ; one under Stanton 
Wood ; another under Norton by Galby ; and a fifth 
near Woodwell Head. 
At the conclusion t>f the last century, Mr. Meynell 
was master of these Quorn hounds, since which time 
they have been in the hands of the following conspicuous 
sportsmen : Earl Sefton, the late Lord Foley, Mr. 
Thomas Aysheton Smith, Sir Bellingham Graham, Mr. 
Osbaldeston, Lord Southampton, the late Sir Harry 
Goodricke, Sir Francis Holyoake Goodricke, and Mr. 
