HUNTING LOCALITIES 155 



is very little wire to be found, that big woodlands 

 are remarkably scarce, that there are few obstructions 

 in the way of gills, or ravines, and that a bold rider can 

 follow hounds almost everywhere, it will be understood 

 that a foxhunter's paradise still exists in this particular 

 part of the Midlands. Then, too, the coverts are 

 generally small, and foxes seldom hang to them, but 

 go away at once, and the grass on the majority of 

 hunting days carries at least a fair scent. Drawbacks 

 there may be to the Shires, but there are drawbacks 

 of sorts to every hunting country in the kingdom, 

 and probably there are fewer in the extra-fashionable 

 hunts than elsewhere. There are those who object 

 to the ridge and furrow of the grass, but this is a 

 matter which troubles new-comers more than the 

 habitues, and those who hunt in the Shires hardly 

 notice the uneven ground after they have had some 

 experience of galloping over it. Where hunting 

 in these particular Midland hunts differs from 

 hunting elsewhere is in the pace. It is not to be 

 supposed that hounds actually run faster in the Quorn, 

 Pytchley, or Cottesmore than they do in other countries, 

 but they are more favoured by open country than in 

 many other hunts, and as they so often find their foxes 

 in small gorse coverts they as often have the chance 

 of what is generally called "getting away on the top 

 of their fox." It therefore results that time after time 

 foxes have to fly for their lives the moment hounds are 

 in covert, and in consequence the quick hunt is com- 

 moner in the Shires than it is in countries where the 

 coverts are larger, and the fox is able to take a turn or 

 two before he slips away. 



Whether the average of sport, looked at from every 

 point of view, is better in the Shires than it is in some 



