OXFORDSHIRE 9 



assistance, a series of good sport is not unusual on the Oxfordshire 

 Hills. • 



The hill country is easy to ride over as far as fencing is concerned, 

 and is particularly suited to persons whose nerves have lost a little 

 of their steel. Some of the bruisinn riders from Leicestershire and 

 other places have called it a "humbug country;" by which they 

 mean to imply that there are no fences which cannot be got over 

 withouu a certain fall. It is true, that, taking the hills in general, an 

 accomplished hunter is not often wanting. There are no doubles — 

 no ox-fences — no stiles with foot-bridges, and no timber, unless you 

 like it, except sheep hurdles, which ought not to throw a horse down 

 (unless blown) with a horseman on his back. A quick well-bred 

 horse that can go well upon wind, leap four feet in perpendicular 

 height, and face a brook now and then, is all that is requisite here— 

 but he must he ivell bred. When I say a horse is only required to 

 leap four feet in height, I do not mean to say that higher walls are 

 not met with : but the top stones are so loosely placed, that if he 

 do not clear them, they fly before him. The Oxfordshire and^ 

 Gloucestershire walls are not like what we hear spoken of in the 

 Sister Kingdom, as "coped and dashed, and six feet high," but are 

 without exception the safest fences that are ridden over — not only 

 for the reason just given, but also from the circumstance of the horse 

 never being deceived by a blind ditch on one side, or a squire-trap 

 on the other. The greatest danger arises from the quarries, out of 

 which the stone is procured to build them. They are opened close 

 to the side of the wall, which in that place is generally lower than 

 any other part, and consequently tempting to ride at. It is, there- 

 fore, sometimes necessary to "look before you leap," though a man 

 who is accustomed to the country knows how to guard against the 

 danger. In many places there are small apertures in the walls, 

 either for the purpose of letting hares pass through them, or for 

 water-courses ; and a sportsman cannot do better than ride at them 

 where they are to be found, if the wall is high, as through them he 

 can see the ground on the other side. 



Horses unaccustomed to walls cut a bad figure at them at first ; 

 but the raps on the shins which they get soon make them clear them. 

 I have often been astonished at seeing a horse take half the wall 



