246 Hunting Countries of England. 



strong enougli to carry you up-and-dowu liill, and to 

 go tlirougli deep ground from beginning to end of tlie 

 day. The wliole country is very undulating, con- 

 sisting, as it does, of a series of salients running down 

 towards tlie sea at right angles from the main ridge 

 already alluded to. As with the East Kent, you may 

 often ride all day without having to take a single 

 leap ; but when, now and again, a fence is met with, 

 its proportions are, practically speaking, magnified by 

 the necessity of jumping out of deep ground. And, 

 as such fences as exist are built and bound into 

 an unyielding wattle — or in the case of the frequent 

 hogbacked stile which forms the only exit from a 

 wood — your horse must have jumping power when 

 the necessity comes. His hocks, too, must be clean 

 and strong, or they will certainly fly ; and his feet 

 must have a growth and breadth of horn that will 

 bid defiance to the flints. Finally, when mounting 

 yourself for Mid Kent, you had far better buy some- 

 thing already blemished (and consequently cheaper) ; 

 for a season among the flints is certain to leave its 

 mark in cuts and enlargements. There is yet hope 

 for improvement in the surface of the county of Kent 

 — to be found in the fact that while to grow corn in 

 the present state of the market cannot possibly pay, 

 more and more of the uplands are being laid down 

 for grass. Let the revolution really establish itself, 

 hounds will go quicker, horses will gallop on sound 

 turf, and fences must spring up to give a fillip to the 

 pleasures of riding. 



The Tickham is professedly a five-days-a-fortnight 

 country — and as the season advances, it often reverts 



