4ib The Hunting Countries of England, 



•and is always firm enough for galloping. The fences 

 — throughout Lord Percy^s country — are light and 

 various with characteristics much the same as belong 

 to the best of the Duke of Buccleuch's (already 

 described) — and the horse that will do for the one will 

 do for the other. The foxes of the country, through- 

 out, are of stout hill stock ; and take a great deal of 

 killing. 



Section B may be the title of the rougher district 

 of Chatton, Chillingham, Eglmgham, &c., which lies 

 immediately west of the Old North Road just alluded 

 to. Here broken moorland alternates continually with 

 soft mossy ground, unfavourable for riding, but carry- 

 ing by no means a bad scent. 



Next, as section C, we have the narrow vale of the 

 Till, or, in its earlier course, the Beamish — a pretty 

 but very limited strip. It is nowhere much more than 

 three miles broad ; and at any point a fox is likely to 

 run out of it either to the moorlands or to the western 

 hills. 



Section D is still more to the west, and takes in the 

 lower spurs of the Cheviots — ground that only just 

 runs short of being absolutely mountainous. For all 

 that, it is better riding than is offered by section B — 

 for, though hilly, it is grassy and firm, while the latter 

 is constantly robbing your horse of his shoes and 

 condemning him to overreaches in its treacherous 

 sloughs. Ilderton, Ingram and Alnham denote where 

 this hilly district begins : and it stretches away in a 

 rideable form to Biddleston and the woody crags of 

 Thrunton. What is known in the north as a hill- 

 horse (Birth, shape, and education must be combined 



