456 The Hunting Countries of England. 



position — tlie tliree divisions being the east (or coast), 

 the centre, and the west. 



I. Parallel with the sea is a stiff clay country, with 

 rough hedges, planted on earth banks — old ragged 

 hedges that have never been cut or trimmed, and 

 where necessary have been strongly mended up with 

 dead thorns. Most of this eastern country is under 

 cultivation; though a good deal of grass is to be seen 

 alongside the line of railway — as you run from New- 

 castle to Berwick-on-Tweed — and may give the 

 traveller a scarcely justifiable idea that he is in a 

 second Yale of Aylesbury. 



II. Down the middle of the country runs a district, 

 for the most part under tillage but with some grass. 

 It has less of clay in its soil, and is not so stiffly 

 fenced as the east. It is much intersected by small 

 wooded glens, puzzling to hounds, baulking to horse- 

 men, and leading foxes to turn. All the Morpeth 

 country, in fact, is much cut up by burns — the 

 accepted distinction in the north between brooks and 

 burns being that the latter run between trees and are 

 to be scrambled through, while a brook is held to be 

 a stream with steep banks and to be jumped at a fly. 

 From the presence of these, and from other causes, 

 the Morpeth may be spoken of rather as a hunting 

 than a riding country. And though, as above men- 

 tioned, its foxes are stout and strong, they are by no 

 means invariably straight runners. 



III. The West portion has in it a great deal of 

 rough moor grass land, with woods of considerable 

 size (plantations and small woods being the general 

 coverts of the rest of the country). But it is not till 



