16 The Hunting Countries of England. 



To return to Bescaby Oaks — an evening fox is always 

 found there when applied for : and in most instances 

 he will carry you towards your Grantham dinner- 

 table. A light soil which is but little worse going 

 than grass, and fences of the easiest, would carry 

 you down to Stoke Pasture, or you may find your- 

 self at Buckminster Park with some fine grass between 

 you and Skillington. 



Stonesby is most frequently the meet for Sproxton 

 Thorns and Coston Covert. Goadby Marwood may, 

 or may not, mean Goadby Gorse or Goadby Bullamore 

 and Scalford Bogs. From Piper Hole, the coverts 

 overhanging the Yale of Belvoir are drawn, com- 

 mencing either with the plantations stretching along 

 the Harby Hills, or with Piper Hole Gorse, or 

 Clawson Thorns. From the last-named, or from 

 Hoi well Mouth (neutral with the Quorn), often results 

 a pretty gallop over the Vale — here in its greenest 

 and most tempting form. Saxelby Spinney and 

 Grimston Gorse are also neutral; and when once 

 again relieved from the desolating presence of the 

 swarms of navvies at work on the new railway, will, 

 as before, open the way to the heart of the Quorn 

 Monday country. 



In the Vale itself, Hose Grange and Harby are 

 meets leading to the two small coverts that belong to 

 these villages respectively. From these a westerly 

 wind may, literally, treat to the ignominy of sending 

 you to Jericho across a deep and miry tract. To find 

 ourselves in its neighbourhood has usually been suffi- 

 cient to turn us homewards. But Mr. Sherbrooke^s 

 Gorse Covert^ situate in the extreme corner of the 



