HUNTING LOCALITIES 169 



sional long trot to covert is not objected to, while the 

 same remark applies to the greater part of the Croome 

 country, so that any one living on the famous hill can, 

 if he is so disposed, hunt every day. And the hunting 

 is wonderfully good, there being a fair amount of 

 grass in both Ledbury and Croome domains, while the 

 plough is not particularly deep. Some big woodlands 

 there are, but for all that the bulk of the hunting is in 

 the open, and the Ledbury is, on the whole, a fair 

 scenting country, while the Worcestershire has a bad 

 reputation in this respect. 



Bath, another inland watering-place, is not very well 

 placed for hunting. It lies on the boundary of the 

 Duke of Beaufort's Hunt, but there is seldom any fox- 

 hunting on the Bristol side of the town, and thus the 

 Badminton pack are not very often within an easy ride of 

 the city. There is a pack of harriers at Bath, and some 

 few of the northern meets of the South and West Wilts 

 are not very far away, but any one living there, and 

 wishing to hunt several days in the week, would have 

 to hunt by train very often. Still, the Duke of Beaufort's 

 hounds attract many visitors every season, and these, 

 as a rule, take houses, or find quarters at Chippenham, 

 Cirencester, Tetbury, or Chipping Sodbury, and de- 

 vote a portion of their time to one of the two V.W.H. 

 packs. Chippenham and Calne are the most import- 

 ant towns near the centre of the hunt, and there is an 

 hotel — the ''Portcullis" — close to one of the gates of 

 Badminton Park. 



But hunting quarters from which several important 

 packs can be reached are very numerous in the Mid- 

 lands, and mention may be made of other places which 

 from time to time are visited by strangers, and where 

 the letting of houses, chiefly for hunting purposes, is 



