254 Hunting Countries of England. 



command tlie country. It is fouod that some two-and- 

 forty couple are by no means too many for tlie work 

 of hunting three days a week ; for the sharp flints of 

 the wolds in some parts almost hide the ground, and 

 play terrible havoc with the feet of hounds. Horses 

 do not suffer in the same degree, as they move on the 

 top of the chalky soil, and so only expose their hoofs 

 to the ragged edges of the flints. The configuration 

 of the country, as divided into the wold or upper 

 ground, and the woodlands, is plainly visible on the 

 map — the former stretching from the south of the 

 country up its whole width to Ewhurst, north of which, 

 and including the Wolverton, Kingsclere and the Vine 

 neighbourhoods, is termed the Woodlands. As a definite 

 distinction the latter is nowadays quite a misnomer. 

 As a matter of fact, all the coverts of the Vine are big 

 woods, chains of which are as freely laid across their 

 wold country as in what they call their Woodlands — 

 which section of their territory no doubt earned its 

 name when it included Pamber Forest (once a thou- 

 sand acres) and other vast tracts of wood now hunted 

 by the South Berks. The only absolute difference 

 now existing consists, as has been mentioned above, in 

 the character of the soil and the style of its culture. 

 On the light ground of the wolds the fields of corn or 

 roots are divided only by broad growths of hazel — 

 they can be scarcely called hedges, as, save by the 

 roadsides, they are planted with no view to fencing-in 

 or fencing-out. They merely serve to mark an out- 

 line, and to 1)6 cut down now and again to make 

 wattles, &c. They are pierced with frequent holes, 

 through which the rider may move at his leisure, or at 



