214 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



Shropshire is an easy one — that is to say, the part comprising the 

 Shropshire Hunt. Although the fences come quick, yet there is 

 nothing to stop a hard-riding man on a good hunter, and timber need 

 but rarely be taken. The common Shropshire fence — say nineteen 

 out of twenty — is a small live or dead hedge, not hound, placed on a 

 small bank, with one ditch, and that not generally a large one. 

 These fences, however, stop horses in their pace, for they must be 

 taken quietly. Were a man to attempt to clear bank and all at one 

 fly, he would not go long ; but he is generally safe over them if he 

 have a hand on his horse, and will allow him to " foot well " before 

 he springs. In some countries the common Shropshire fence would 

 be considered little more than a gap. Strong places, however, do 

 every now and then occur, and — what makes small fences large 

 ones — the horses are almost always going in deep ground. Horses, 

 indeed, that can go well over Shropshire can go w^ell over most other 

 countries. 



There is, however, one part of riding over Shropshire which 

 requires a good man and a good horse, and even these will not 

 always do. I allude to the black boggy drains, which abound in the 

 low meadows, and which will not admit of a horse approaching their 

 banks near enough to be certain of clearing them. If he do clear 

 them, the exertion is a severe one, and an over-reach or a lost shoe 

 is too often the consequence. 



That Sir Bellingham Graham should like Shropshire as a hunting 

 country, cannot for a moment be imagined. He lit the candle at 

 the wrong end for this. Had he begun with Shropshire, and 

 proceeded to Leicestershire, the case would have been altered ; but 

 few people like to go back in the world. The way, however, in 

 which he has hunted it — with an establishment very nearly equal to 

 Leicestershire — entitles him to the greatest credit ; but though he 

 does not like the country, I have heard him many times declare that 

 he likes the people, and here is the spur to his exertions. 



When Sir Bellingham Graham asserts that he " likes the people " 

 in Shropshire, we may naturally conclude he chiefly alludes to those 

 of his own rank in life with whom he every day associates. I 

 think, however, I may take upon myself to say, he goes one step 

 further than this, and includes in his panegyric the yeomen and 



