The Tiekham. 243 



too often acted upon (not in Kent only_, but wherever 

 tlie owner of gamecoverts either goes off to some more 

 popular country for his huntings or else does not hunt 

 at all) — ^' Foxhunting is out of place here. The 

 country is altogether unfavourable ! And so I don^t 

 feel called upon to preserve foxes. ''^ Put in other 

 wordsj this is the most selfish and ungenerous reason- 

 ing possible. It simply means ^'I can go to a better 

 hunting country — or could if I chose. As for you, my 

 neighbours_, who are obliged to stay here — it does not 

 concern me whether you have sport, or not ; and 

 accordingly I decline to make any effort to assist 

 you \" 



'Great woods of hazel and Spanish chestnut are the 

 leading feature of the Tiekham Country. Oak and 

 ash and other timber are scattered freely over the 

 acres and miles of thicket ; but the bulk of the covert 

 is a low and densely thick growth — cut down about 

 every twelve or fifteen years for conversion into hop- 

 poles, hurdles and wattle. The rides through these 

 jungles are merely accidental cart tracks, made in 

 carrying off the last-cut portion of the wood. Eiding 

 up them, you, as often as not, find that all path has 

 entirely disappeared, and you are brought up short by 

 the growth of years — through which a horse cannot 

 possibly struggle, and even a hound can only force 

 himself slowly. In the autumn the under-covert is 

 so thickened by the help of the briars that a pack can 

 in some places scarcely crawl. Carrying a head during 

 cub -hunting must be out of the question ; and at no 

 time can they rattle a fox with a front so wide and a 

 pace so strong as, for instance, in the hollow woods of 



