238 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



On arable land in the highest state of cultivation, or 

 rather pulverisation, evaporation is more extensive 

 than on soils of a retentive nature, and from that cause 

 heavy clays are more favourable than the light loamy 

 and sandy districts. Land which has been recently 

 ploughed is also more subservient to evaporative 

 influences than that which has remained dormant for 

 some time. The general condition of the atmosphere 

 may be nearly similar over a considerable tract of 

 country, while the principles of evaporation may vary 

 in certain localities from the reasons already suggested. 

 And this is not unusual, because we know that it often 

 rains at one place while it is quite fine at another. 



Scent generally fails on roads ; but that is not an 

 invariable rule, for sometimes it will be better there 

 than in some other place; foxes, however, do not 

 usually frequent such lines, except for short intervals. 

 It will sometimes happen that there is an excellent 

 scent on dry fallows, even when the dust is flying, 

 which most sportsmen will acknowledge who have 

 hunted with Earl Fitzhardinge's hounds in their 

 Cheltenham country, during the spring of the year. 

 When the scent is good there, it is seldom so in the 

 Berkeley Vale, and vice versa. The latter is all grass ; 

 the former, especially on the Cotswold Hills, is prin- 

 cipally arable. On the light sandy soils in the 

 Albrighton country I never saw or heard of there being 

 a good scent in dry weather. The nature of that land 

 is essentially different from that on Cotswold Hills. 

 Arable land which has been drained is not generally 

 favourable to fox-hunting, and, as I apprehend, it is 

 more readily acted upon by the elements in the 

 quantity of evaporation given forth. 



It is a generally received opinion that when the 

 country is overcharged with moisture the scent will not 

 lie. Beckford entertained that notion, although I must 

 observe that many of his remarks on this point, what- 

 ever might have been the events which occasioned them 

 in his time, are overruled by modern instances. He 



