72 The Hunting Countries of England. 



with gangs of shouting workmen; but the honest 

 navvy cares not to work more than three or four days 

 in the week^ preferring to take his pleasure in snaring 

 in solitude, in rabbit digging with a chum after his 

 own heart_, or in openly beating the fox-coverts in 

 force. If the hounds are out they have mustered, a 

 noisy hundred, at the covertside, an hour or so before 

 the pack is thrown in. Yes, lamentable and dis- 

 figuring as those red lines will still look on the face of 

 this fair country, they will be welcome when drawn 

 continuous and finished, in comparison with the state 

 of progress and devastation conveyed by their present 

 dotted length. 



Asfordby is another meet for Welby Fishponds and 

 the useful little copse of Cantos Thorns adjoining. 

 Hounds are also sometimes brought to Ab Kettleby 

 for the same ; but more often for the coverts neutral 

 with the Belvoir, to which we shall come immediately. 

 Ragdale is for Shoby Scholes and Lord Aylesford^s — 

 two splendid coverts almost touching each other. The 

 former is a thickly wooded dell, overlooking which the 

 field have to stand on the grass hills on either side the 

 wide hollow. Their fox, likely enough, breaks down 

 the valley; then, with a rare country, and a quick 

 scenting one, all round, it is a ride to be with hounds. 

 Over the brow is Lord Aylesford^s — a grand gorse 

 and broom covert ^of twenty or thirty acres, where 

 more foxes were found last season than anywhere in 

 the Monday country. A free loan it is, too — and a 

 loan right well appreciated. 



Further to the left along the roadside is Eatcliff-on- 

 the-AYreake, the widest Monday meet in this direction. 



