The Bicester and Warden Hill Hunt. 195 



are in covert; and no sooner is one on foot than others 

 crop up at once. Thus it is essentially necessary that 

 hounds should be very even in their work, and carry a 

 good head — or to a certainty they will quickly change 

 foxes. The rides are desperately deep and holding ; 

 and the man who goes through them with hounds will 

 frequently send his horse home at two o^clock more 

 than half tired — though he may never have jumped a 

 fence^ or even been out of covert. But once outside, 

 you embark on a country that fully justifies the 

 Bicester men in their rapturous eulogies on the merits 

 of the Claydon Woods. There is a splendid grass 

 country on every side — whether you gallop to God- 

 dington Gorse or the Tingewick Woods — or, on the 

 other side, over Muswell Hill, or to Blackgrove Gorse 

 — or, again, a different direction, to The Quarters — or, 

 another line still (nor by any means the worst) to 

 Gravenhill, near Bicester. 



The woods mostly belong to Sir Harry Yerney, of 

 Claydon Park, a true fox preserver (a preserver, 

 indeed, of any kind of wild animal. It was in one of 

 his coverts that hounds killed a badger last autumn). 

 The Duke of Leeds owns one of the largest woods, 

 Finemoor Hill ; and Grendon Wood belongs to the 

 Pigotts of Doddershall, an old Bucks family. All the 

 country round the Claydons is good scenting, and fair 

 and pleasant to ride over — though very deep indeed in 

 mid winter ; the woodland foxes of course are stout ; 

 and they travel long distances before they die. 



Of the three Thursday meets outside the woods, 

 Ham Green is close to the edge; and the Duke of 

 Buckingham's coverts at Wootton (Gipsy Bottom, 



