402 The Hunting Countries of England. 



wheel — yet is so firm that a horse^s hoof sinks to no 

 great depth even in the wettest winter. Radiating 

 from various central points these beautiful green cut- 

 tings throw the view in every direction through the 

 masses of rich old timber. At the foot of the spread- 

 ing oaks is a carpet of low bracken covert, which 

 scarcely hinders fox or hounds, and altogether fails to 

 hide the latter in their work. Tlius, as you gallop 

 the rides from point to point, your eye may follow the 

 chase almost as freely as in open ground. It may 

 indeed be said, without fear of contradiction, that no 

 more lovely site for cubhunting exists than the 

 Dukeries. To move through its grassy glades, and 

 mark its bubbling trout streams, your heart goes back 

 at once to sympathy with the bold outlaw, whose life 

 was sport and whose food was the forest game, though 

 he drew bow with a halter round his neck. The fat 

 fallow-buck was guarded by penalty of death in 

 those days. If Reynard were but as well cared for 

 by the paternal government of modern times, sport 

 would be more plentiful than it is in the forest of 

 Shirewood. 



Here and there in the forest is a patch of strong 

 covert — possibly willow growth by a brookside — 

 where a fox is most likely to be found. But the bulk 

 of the great area that comes under the denomination 

 of The Forest is either such as described above, or else 

 has been broken up for cultivation, having detached 

 woods scattered over its extent. An immense propor- 

 tion of the Rufford Country — whether the Forest or 

 the Clays — is, in fact, taken up with covert of one 

 description or another. The Forest occupies the heart 



