24 The Hunting Countries of England. 



the York and Ainsty Hunt and lies partly in the 

 Bramliam Moor. Here the soil is deep, the coverts 

 are small and the ditches are big. Most of the 

 Bramham Moor Country is easy to get over and 

 about — the fences being low simple hedges with an 

 ordinary ditch, the ground not too deep, and the 

 woods soundly-rided. Indeed, when a large field is 

 out {i.e., a large field for Yorkshire — seldom more 

 than seventy or eighty souls) the facility which the 

 country offers for everyone keeping with hounds is 

 in itself apt to create a difiiculty for a huntsman, 

 anxious to keep his hounds^ noses down. The. woods 

 in the centre of the country, such as those of Hare- 

 wood Park and about Bramham, are very extensive, 

 but at the same time neither deep nor difficult. In 

 the Ainsty corner, however, a very good horse is 

 wanted ; for, besides his having to gallop on through 

 strong clay, the fence at the end of the field will often 

 demand a tremendous effort — without any of the 

 advantage of a rush at it over clean ground. The 

 hedges are seldom bound and laid in the strong 

 artistic fashion that in the shires tends doubly to 

 advahce the study of anatomy — finding practice^ on 

 the one hand, for the country bonesetter, and, on the 

 other, drawing the attention of the novice to the all- 

 necessary subject of shoulders. But they are strong- 

 grown and closely trimmed, and of a height that often 

 just conceals a yawner till your horse^s spring is all 

 but defined. You perhaps perceive the gulf before 

 he does; but this makes the situation none the 

 pleasanter, for it is too late to urge him without 

 throwing him out of his stride, and the tension of 



