The Oakley, 417 



The steam ploug'li lias been driving* its villanoua 

 grooves througli the soil of late years — perhaps to the 

 benefit of hounds., certainly to the discomfiture of 

 horses,, and — with the sad experience of two wet 

 seasons — apparently to the disadvantage of farmers, 

 who in many cases will have no more of it. So, when 

 a scent rages, horses cannot live with hounds — though, 

 truth to tell, scent does not rage here more habitually 

 than on other well-tilled ground. The woodlands 

 have the better scenting soil, at all events in early 

 autumn and late spring. And the woods of the 

 Oakley are everywhere well-rided. It is always 

 possible to get about them. They are of no great 

 width, and only a stranger need ever be afraid of 

 getting lost. 



It is only in the lately reclaimed Woburn district 

 that anything like a real hill is to be seen. Here the 

 soil changes to a sandy description, and rises and falls 

 in some stiff slopes. Just north of this, again, we 

 come to the only part of the country that lays claim to 

 possessing more than the thinnest scattering of grass. 

 Round Newport Pagnell there is a good deal of nice 

 meadow land. But, it may be repeated, the Oakley 

 country as a whole is flat plough, containing very 

 many coverts. These coverts are, generally speaking, 

 excellently preserved — and so, though it is always 

 easy to find a fox, it is often equally easy to change on 

 to a fresh one, as hounds bring a line through a covert. 



The fences are much the same throughout — except 

 that round Thurleigh are a certain number of doubles. 

 The ditches are often blind and often wide. Water in 

 a jumpable form is seldom met with. The horse, 



G G 



