180 The Hunting Countries of England. 



THE CATTISTOCK.* 



The south-west quarter of the very sporting county 

 of Dorset forms the Cattistock Country — the Black- 

 moor Vale being immediately to the north of it, while 

 the East Dorset and Mr. Radcliffe's (The South Dorset) 

 take up the rest of the Shire. The sea bounds it on 

 the south j and Crewkerne, Bridport, Weymouth, and 

 Dorchester are towns defining its borders. A single 

 brief sentence will convey a very fair idea of the 

 Cattistock — as far as the nature of its ground is 

 concerned. It consists of an upland centre of closed 

 down, with a strip of rich vale at the foot on every 

 side — save on part of its eastern frontier. The down 

 is hilly and chalky, with a surface of grassy sheepwalk 

 and light barley land ; the vale is rich soil, devoted 

 almost entirely to dairy farming. The hills are divided 

 into enclosures of fifty to a hundred acres : the vale is 

 laid out in little meadows which call for jumping 

 incessantly. Old Jim Treadwell, who died soon after 

 his master, Mr. Farquharson — the latter, be it remem- 

 bered, having hunted the whole of Dorsetshire at his 

 own expense for upwards of sixty years — was wont to 



* Vide Stanford's " Hunting Map," Sheet 20 ; and Hobson's 

 Foxhiinting Atlas. 



