202 Hunting Countries of England. 



witli none of Oxonian suppleness of backbone to help 

 you tbrougli your allotted task. 



The Heytbrop vales are nice sound grass, somewhat 

 deep in wet weather, and in themselves rather narrow 

 and limited. But foxes are always fond of running a 

 valley rather than crossing it ; and so the turf lowlands 

 are generally made the most of: and they carry a 

 capital scent. Their fences are fair stake-and-bounds 

 to be taken at a fly, and as a rule are well within the 

 compass of a hunter. Besides these two descriptions 

 of ground, the Heythrop have one large broken wood- 

 land, known as Whichwood Forest, and various pieces 

 of rough inferior country, here and there — more 

 particularly down their eastern boundary. 



The Heythrop country lies north-west of the town 

 of Oxford — having the Old Berkshire and the Vale of 

 White Horse on the south, the Cotswold and North 

 Cotswold on the west, the Warwickshire on the north, 

 and the Bicester on the east. The river Charwell 

 marks the eastern boundary — the others as coloured 

 on Stanford's map (with no other distinctive natural 

 features to denote the limits of the country), except 

 that the southernmost corner, from Witney and 

 Eynsham downwards, should have borne a neutral 

 tint, as it is held in common by the Heythrop and the 

 Old Berkshire. 



Oxford itself stands a little wide from the best meets 

 of the Hunt, as it does from those of the Bicester. In 

 fact, there is very little good country in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Oxford — though you may get lots of 

 excellent hunting by riding some distance to covert. 

 The Oxonian in good credit thinks a good deal less of 



