The Tedworth. 279 



tion you must be guided only to a certain extent by 

 the colouring of Mr. Stanford's map. He should have 

 carried the north-eastern frontier of the Tedworth 

 considerably wider^ so as to include Savernake Forest 

 and a tract of country of which Froxfield^ Shalbourn, 

 and the edge of the hills by Ham and East Wood- 

 hay, give about the true outline. Andover, being 

 most easily reached from town (in an hour and three- 

 quarters from Waterloo), is the point you would 

 probably choose if minded to run down to the Ted- 

 worth, as it is attainable on the morning of hunting. 



And now, having noted its position, we may proceed 

 briefly to note upon the Tedworth country. It is not 

 one that will bear lengthy description, for it has no 

 great variety in itself beyond that conveyed in the 

 summary already given. Its coverts are, generally 

 speaking, smaller and farther apart than those of its 

 neighbour, the Vine. Its face, where disturbed by the 

 plough, is of the same cold, flinty and chalky, nature, 

 over which hounds can only really run on exceptional 

 occasions 3 but its Downs often carry a dashing scent. 

 You may safely say of the Tedworth as a scenting 

 country, that yon either run fast over it or cannot run 

 at all. Close at your fox on a favourable day, you 

 may race him from find to finish more surely than over 

 the best pastures in the Shires. For he can never 

 run his foil by doubling down a hedgerow, nor at 

 the last moment save his brush by lying down in a 

 ditch. In a quick spin over the Downs it often hap- 

 pens that Reynard is to be seen all the way, as he 

 rises brow after brow of the undulating sheep-walk, 

 till at length he drops back to hounds to be rolled 



