Lord Coventry's. 99 



enclosures, and, when hounds are running in some 

 parts of the country, you are no sooner into a field 

 than you should be gathering your reins for a jump 

 out again. A rash horse might even swing you out 

 over a second fence before you had fairly collected 

 him, and yourself, after landing over the first. 

 Fortunately the fences themselves are not of a 

 description that need make even such an accident 

 appalling — unless it led to jumping into an apple- 

 orchard. If they ivere strong and high, as well as close 

 together, it would be often difiicult to ride and diffi- 

 cult to see, when hounds are going fast. As it is, 

 they are generally small flying hedges mended with 

 timber, and often, though not always, guarded by a 

 ditch. The hedge is seldom encouraged to grow to 

 any appalling height, nor are the thorns stoutly 

 bound and entwined. But timber is plentiful, the 

 Worcestershire farmers leave no gap, and post-and- 

 rails fill up every weak place. It is upon the size and 

 strength of these, upon the deepness of the ground, 

 and upon the presence and depth of an unforeseen 

 ditch, that the variety and occasional difficulty of 

 crossing the country depends. As a rule, to keep 

 hounds in sight is well within the scope of a fair 

 horseman and a strong useful horse — " useful," you 

 will remember, being the complimentary epithet earned 

 by Mr. Sawyer^s horses when transplanted from the 

 provinces to more fashionable Market Harboro'. 

 Limited size of enclosures and frequency of the 

 fences are, of course, all against hounds — and in 

 favour of a fox, when he is tired, or by nature a 

 short runner. Not only are hounds then constantly 



H 2 



