The Meynell. 175 



many miles only good grass^ small inclosures, and easy 

 fences. It is the most tempting of all countries to 

 "lark over/^ jumping is offered every hundred yards : 

 and the fences — top-trimmed, not stake-and-bound, 

 and seldom furnished with a ditch of any moment — 

 invite but never terrify. Conseqaently^ hounds are 

 hindered rather than horsemen; and sport is occa- 

 sionally the sufferer. In fact, it is difficult for hounds 

 to get room enough even with a moderate field and 

 over capital scenting ground ; and they seldom get 

 away from their followers, except when now and again 

 they slip on to the hills north of the country. There 

 they have more than once been known to pull their 

 fox down by themselves. 



The Meynell country is not one much known, or 

 visited, by outsiders. They know of it as a country 

 of sport and pleasant riding ; and a visit to it — even a 

 day^s trip, is a chance readily seized upon by men 

 quartered elsewhere. But, apart from those who 

 hunt in Derbyshire, or on its frontiers, because they 

 live there, fewer hunting men bring their horses to 

 the Meynell country than its many attractions would 

 lead one to suppose. But, as may have been already 

 gathered, it is not a country that could stand an influx 

 of visitors. A crowd would at once spoil its own 

 sport; and anything approaching to a Leicestershire 

 field would choke itself, and its object. Added to 

 this, there is little choice of quarter — Derby being 

 the only resting-place offering, except the more 

 distant points of Uttoxeter and Ashbourne. These 

 towns all lie on the outskirts of the country ; while at 

 Sudbury, the site of the Kennels, the Inn would 



