20 The Bedale Hounds, 1832-1908 



be described as rotten, rather than deep : but 

 in the Bedale country the grass land is par- 

 ticularly sound and dry. The fences, with 

 the exception of the ' stells ' or brooks, 

 are such as do not so much put to the test 

 the spring and power of a hunter, as his 

 temper and the ready use of his legs. 



It is a country in which men who ride 

 quickly over it must get falls. 



For scent, I should say, Yorkshire is upon 

 the whole favourable, and Holderness good 

 to the proverb : ' In a wet season, any fool 

 could kill a fox with a Utter of pigs,' but 

 notwithstanding this I have reason to think 

 straightforward runs are scarce articles in 

 this land of sporting. It must, however, be 

 recollected that the majority of the coverts 

 are whins, and ringing runs generally prevail 

 where they abound, which accounts for the 

 ease with which gentlemen now jump upon 

 their second horses in Leicestershire. A fox 

 breaking from a wood has usually time to 

 look about him, steal quietly away, and 

 make his point ; but from a gorse covert he 

 is almost always viewed away, is alarmed, 

 gets blown, and turns short.'' 



[With the greatest deference to ' ' Nimrod," 

 I fail, writing eighty years later, to agree 

 with him. Not only in Yorkshire but in 

 other counties I have seen the best of points, 

 gallops, and hunts from whin or gorse coverts. 

 They are a necessity after the end of Dec- 

 ember, when most woodlands lose their 

 undergrowth, the wind sweeps through them 



