12 The Hunting Countries of England. 



pletely reversed. More often, however, fox and hounds 

 will run along under the hillside while you are able to 

 gallop on the top ; and the slope being quite free from 

 timber you may see with ease all that the pack is 

 doing. A vale fox is more likely to take to the hill 

 than a hill fox to descend to the low country — a rule 

 that holds good nearly everywhere. And as there are 

 no large coverts on the downs, hounds are there gene- 

 rally able to account for their fox — when once they 

 have been on terms sufficient to take the steel out of 

 him. But in the case of the Southdown hill and vale, 

 again, there is the attraction of the strong woods 

 below — such as Plashet, Abbott's Wood, and Laughton 

 on the east, and Toddington, Danny, Newtimber, and 

 Wellingore on the west; and a woodland bred fox, 

 found on the downs, is pretty sure to make his point 

 back as soon as he can. 



The Low Country is, to adopt a homely but not 

 altogether inapplicable simile, as widely different from 

 the downs as cheese is from chalk. A strong clay soil 

 is to a great extent laid down in good honest turf ; 

 the rest is plough that rides deep and holding. For 

 instance, both sides of the railway as you travel from 

 Keymer Junction to Lewes are all beautiful gTass ; as 

 it is also from Glynd to the Laughton Woods. Moving 

 on by Chiddingly again we get into a stiff deep 

 country, while on the west of Henfield district is 

 grass and plough mixed. The large lowland coverts 

 are mostly full of foxes — the Chiddingly neighbour- 

 hood being especially notable in this respect. The 

 fences of the weald call for a clever horse rather than 

 a flyer ; the hedge is generally on a low bank, always 



