208 Hunting Countries of England. 



THE OLD BE:RKSHIF.E.* 



South-west of the town of Oxford is the very sporting 

 Country of the Old Berkshire. Some forty years ago 

 the Yale of White Horse and the Old Berkshire were 

 one Hunt — under the latter denomination. But the 

 extent of ground being considered too wide for a 

 single pack, the western portion— from Cirencester 

 and Malmesbury, to the Kiver Cole, and (north of 

 the Thames) nearly to Bampton — was told off as a 

 separate province, and carried with it the title of the 

 Vale of White Horse (though the site of that ancient 

 configuration and rite really is still in the Old Berk- 

 shire as it now remains). 



The outlines of the present Old Berkshire Country 

 follow very approximately the marks suggested by 

 hill and water. High downs separate it on the south 

 from the Craven; the Biver Cole forms its western 

 boundary ; and — with the exception of a turn over 

 the river — into the Heythrop kingdom as far as 

 Witney on the north, and again as far as Nuneham 

 Park into the South Oxfordshire on the east — the 

 Thames defines it on the remaining sides. Any little 



* Vide " Stanford's Large Scale Railway Map," Sheet 15 ; and 

 "Hobson's Foxhunting Atlas." 



