The Bedale. 123 



the grass or the highest moorland reached by hounds. 

 The Yale^ however, varies . much in its scenting 

 properties. The north — say, from above Scruton to 

 Cowton — and on into the Hurworth — is stiff clay, 

 chiefly under the plough, and irrigated, as it were, by 

 the Swale and the Wisk. It carries a capital scent, 

 and is looked upon as some of the best sporting ground 

 in the Hunt. West of this (beyond Catterick and 

 Leeming Lane) the ground becomes undulating and 

 gradually hilly — till it merges into the western moor- 

 lands. The centre of the vale (Bedale, Gatenby, &c.) 

 contains rather more grass, and is fair scenting 

 ground. But as we work south, and touch the edge 

 x)f the York- and- Ainsty, the country gets gradually 

 lighter, the soil less capable of holding a scent, and 

 the fences small, almost to insignificance. The fences 

 of the Bedale Vale are nowhere very big or difficult ; 

 and are of the simple hedge-and-ditch type. But 

 whereas in the north the hedges grow well, though 

 clipped down to a level that interferes neither with your 

 view of the hounds nor the safety of your neck, and 

 the ditches are well dug — in the south the hedges 

 would in most cases fail to stop a pony, and in many, 

 indeed, would scarcely carry a poacher^s snare. This 

 is, as it happens, all to the disadvantage of the hounds 

 and huntsman : for the largest fields of the week are 

 on the York side. Small fences and a sandy weak- 

 scenting soil are only too encouraging to a galloping 

 field ; giving' the latter frequent opportunity of 

 putting themselves between fox and hounds. As a 

 general rule, the Bedale fields are anything but large ; 

 and, except in the south, fifty is almost an outside 



