386 The Hunting Countries of England. 



The extreme north-west is the exception to vary the 

 features of the country : which there is rougher, more 

 hilly and wooded. Of the rest we have the Sparkford 

 vale, the Stalbridge vale, the Pulham vale, besides the 

 Leweston-and-Caundle Marsh district; and all these 

 differ more or less in characteristics of soil, scent, and 

 fence. But before specifying further, it must be set down 

 as an order distinct and irrefragable, that wherever 

 you would follow Sir Richard^s hounds with credit, you 

 WAist be on a strong, shortbacked, horse and a stayer. 

 In the stiff est part of the Blackmoor Vale he must be 

 able to take off well away from his fence, light on the 

 bank like a cat, and shoot himself forward again 

 without dwelling. To effect this thoroughly and 

 cleverly, many good judges assert that a certain 

 amount of pace is requisite. Others have it that you 

 can best afford to go slow. The truth, as I glean it, 

 lies between the two. No one would argue that for 

 such an effort it can ever be permissible to rattle a 

 horse off his legs — to put it in stableyard Anglo- 

 Saxon. Yet a horse with a certain amount of way on, 

 yet fully collected, must surely be able to combat the 

 height and distance with greater ease to himself than 

 if called upon to rear and scramble out of deep 

 ground at a walk. For many of these banks, apart 

 from the hazel and thorn growth on the top, are five 

 and six feet — or even more — almost sheer; and a 

 horse that can cleverly top them and cover a wide 

 ditch beyond as he changes his legs, would seem to 

 leave the fence behind him more neatly and with 

 much less labour than if a slow triple effort were 

 exacted from him — let alone the fact that while he is 



