170 Hunting Countries of England. 



Norton Gorse and Glen Gorse for the afternoon. 

 Thurnby Spinney is but a little place. But with a 

 good fox, or even a fair fox, it may mean a run of 

 grand merit. Hounds must get away at his brush ; 

 and to save his brush he must travel fast over a long 

 distance without a covert, and with grass underfoot. 

 And the same conditions (given a huntsman quick to 

 get his hounds from covert — and the hypothesis has 

 seldom been wanting) apply fully to Norton Gorse. 

 Grass paves the way in every direction ; and to run to 

 Kibworth by Burton Overy and Carlton is indeed a 

 blissful progress. Glen Gorse has a good side and a 

 bad. If a fox will but choose his line northwards 

 or westwards, he has a hunter^s paradise before him. 

 But foxes are too often insensible to proffered happi- 

 ness and the interests of their best friends. From the 

 meets of Illston-on-the-Hill and Burton Overy, the pro- 

 bable draws are Norton Gorse and Shangton Holt. 

 Shangton Holt — or, more familiarly, Shang Holt — was 

 a great place in the days before the spinnies of Noseley 

 had grown up. Now it is too apt to act as part of 

 what the Tailbyites were wont to term the "^^home 

 circuit'^ — meaning thereby Noseley, Rolleston, Key- 

 thorpe, Staunton Wood, and Glooston Wood. For, 

 from the park plantations of Noseley a fox is almost 

 sure to run through the Long Spinney or the Covert of 

 Kolleston, or into the wooded glens and glades of Key- 

 thorpe (Ram^s Head, Moor Hill, Yowes Gorse, and 

 Key thorpe Wood included) . From here he is certain 

 to follow a gully to the woods of Staunton or Glooston, 

 or both. All these coverts are from one to two miles 

 apart. Go there as a stranger, you will see a fine run 



