96 The Hunting Countries of England, 



jnsLj be said to offer the same memc in inverted order. 

 The former meet is between two and three miles 

 from Melton ; while Stapleford Bedehouses and Park 

 is about four. In the Park is the Pond Plantation, 

 fertile of good runs, but requiring every sense on the 

 watch for a start. A minute^ s delay in hitting off the 

 nearest gateway in the ring fence ; and you may not 

 see hounds again till you learn that they have had '^a 

 screaming forty minutes and a kill.-'^ Just outside 

 the Park is Laxton^s covert, with a famous stream 

 flowing just below — jumpable in most places, but 

 varying deceptively. By the way, there are two 

 brooks running parallel to each other hereabouts. 

 They cannot both be the Whissendine, though they 

 have been made one by confusion, and termed the 

 Whissendine indiscriminately. Belonging to adja- 

 cent valleys, they have generally been taken for a 

 single twisting watercourse; and the Whissendine 

 accordingly jumped twice as often. In truth, the 

 stream below Laxton^s Covert is not the veritable 

 brook of history and song; which, on the contrary, 

 runs through the village of Whissendine, before it, 

 also, joins the Eye. In the splendid line from 

 Laxton^s Covert to Panksboro^ — which, in part or 

 whole, forms a frequent happy feature in a season in 

 the Melton country — you will cross both streams, if 

 you are lucky enough, and good enough, to achieve 

 the feat. The Whissendine, indeed, is in few places 

 half as terrible as it is painted. Yet have we often 

 seen its turgid waters dammed (Printer, play us not 

 false with the spelling) by struggling men and 

 horses; and its very reputation makes the ordinary 



