Mr, Richard Combe's. 159 



fervour^ possibly^ for the same number of days ; but a 

 paternal Government, as before observed, pays little 

 heed to fostering the tastes of its warriors in this 

 direction; and for one chance it gives them of a 

 quarter in a high-class country, it insists ten times on 

 placing them in an indifferent one. 



To ride with hounds across Mr. Combers territory 

 requires some little nerve ; and is excellent practice 

 for either man or horse. Both must use their eyes ; 

 the rider must learn to use his hands, and the horse 

 his legs. Miles and miles — in fact, the bulk of the 

 country is clad, and hidden, in heather. Here and 

 there a little strip of vale is found, where cultivation 

 has a chance, where the soil is deep, and fences are 

 strongly built. But most of the country is of one 

 pattern, light sandy soil, on which heather and fir 

 alone can flourish. The Government are the leading 

 proprietors, and it is especially suited for the require- 

 ments of camp and exercise. Thus, for a quarter of a 

 century sappers and miners, gunners and linesmen, 

 have been practising every variety of earthwork and 

 trench digging — more particularly over the north of 

 the country and the neighbourhood of Aldershot. The 

 pits and trenches made by the troops have seldom been 

 filled in, when the lesson of the day is completed; and 

 they now remain, overgrown with heather, a constant 

 succession of pitfalls for the rushing aide-de-camp 

 or the artless foxhunter. Here and there, too, high 

 banks divide the moorland ; and the ditches on either 

 side are often completely hidden by the luxuriant 

 heather — making it difficult for a horse new to such 

 ground to measure his stride, or change it, with 



