152 Hunting Countries of England. 



As a woodland country, pure and simple, it may be 

 asserted that tlie '' Woodland Pytchley '' is not easily 

 to be beaten. It Has foxes everywhere, and in most 

 parts carries a good scent — while the rides are 

 navigable, though the woods are wet enough for 

 sport in both spring and autumn. For the one who 

 wields the horn there must be an endless fund of 

 interest and amusement. Those who follow have work 

 enough for wits and energy, if they would keep within 

 hearing of hounds. Seeing hounds in woodlands is, to 

 all practicable intent, a fagon de parler. The ear must 

 be the guiding organ more often than the eye — or — to 

 leave the directing power with the hound — he may 

 follow his nose, you must follow his tongue. And 

 there is no crowd to carry you on in the mechanical 

 way that in an open country may bring you forward 

 fyou know not how), till eventually you come up with 

 hounds once more. In the woods you must act for 

 yourself, and acquire a special interest. And it ends 

 in your learning (however dull and careless a pupil) 

 that foxhunting is an interest — not merely an exercise. 

 It may be said that long and solitary rides home offer 

 few point of interest except to the man of melancholy 

 and reflection. But they are necessarily part of the 

 self-discipline and rigour of habit called for in pursuit 

 of sport in a woodland and thinly-populated country. 

 They may even be improving. But at least they are 

 open to the objection that the horse, though eminently 

 a reflective animal, goes home better in company than 

 alone. You, reader, and I, may have learned that 

 silence is golden — but, I fancy, we would gladly take 

 out the chanofe in silver, to spend on a fourteen-mile 

 ride to our dinner. 



