LEICESTERSHIRE AND SURREY HUNTING. 105 



to that by his coming to a ditch too narrow to attract 

 his observation, or to a stiff hedge so low that he dis- 

 dains to rise at it; and at this rate danger diminishes, 

 until the rider arrives at what may be termed the point 

 of greatest safety, namely, a moderately high fence 

 through which (as in the county first mentioned) a 

 horse can at a glimpse see on the other side a broad 

 and deep ditch or small brook. 



A hunter coming fast and cheerfully at a fence of this 

 description, no sooner is observed to prick his ears, than 

 in self-defence he is sure to try, and if he tries he is 

 not only sure, but by his momentum he cannot help to 

 clear it. 



The great ease with which large fences can be crossed 

 produces the following rather curious result, namely, that 

 although the horses ridden after hounds in Leicestershire, 

 Northamptonshire, and Lincolnshire are infinitely superior 

 to those ridden in Surrey, yet the small, blind, cramped, 

 awkward, arid consequently difficult, fences of the latter 

 county require, and therefore create, better horsemen 

 than those who, in " the shires," as joyously as swallows 

 in summer, are to be seen in leafless November skimming 

 together across grass fields separated by broad fences. 



And it is for this reason, that while a horseman from 

 the small, difficult fences, if well mounted, has always been 

 found able to go and clear the broad, easier ones, the very 



