394i The Hunting Countries of England. 



peculiar and inimitable style — whicli, like Charles 

 Payne's, lias been copied by many a man, only to 

 entail on bim total loss of caste for ever. Both of 

 these famous huntsmen may often be said to have 

 caught their fox themselves, and merely taken their 

 hounds with them to run into him at the finish. 

 Indeed, Ward did more than that on one occasion 

 with the Cambridgeshire. He galloped on and met 

 his tired fox in a lane, jumped off to seize him by the 

 brush as he crawled up the bank, and held him till 

 hounds came up. 



Unlike its neighbour " The Fitzwilliam,'' the Cam- 

 bridgeshire country has been ploughed from time 

 immemorial, whereas the other was rank deep grass 

 less than sixty years ago. The saving clause of the 

 Cambridgeshire was contained in the grass headlands, 

 which, till removed by '^^high farming,^' gave every 

 field a border of ten to twenty yards in width. These 

 headlands were not altogether pleasant riding, for 

 they were constantly intercepted by sharp-cut open 

 drains, which in the earlier months of the season were 

 more often than not completely hidden in rough 

 herbage. But they carried a tremendous scent ; 

 hounds flew along them at a pace that frequently 

 distanced pursuit, and foxes always took them for 

 choice, as against the draggling fallows alongside. 

 And, besides robbing the soil of this advantage, 

 improved cultivation has brought further damage by 

 means of the steam plough, which is now as generally 

 used in the counties of Cambridge, Hertford, and 

 Beds as elsewhere where the vain struggle to grow 

 wheat at a profit is still maintained. Consequently 



