Capt, Hon. F. Johnstone's. 213 



The early career of each of these is through a wooded 

 dale^ more or less rugged and deep, and affording the 

 most tempting harbour for foxes. But the most 

 notable of these is the Newton Dale, an enormous 

 glen pointing nearly north and south above the town 

 of Pickering, and having the Malton railway and the 

 httle river Pickering winding along its base. Dense 

 covert clothes both its sides ; and a fox breaking from 

 here is pretty sure to embark upon rough wild ground. 



A railway now also runs from Pickering to Scar- 

 borough along the Derwent vale, by no means improv- 

 ing the already attenuated strip of low country beneath 

 the hills. Near the foot of these last are several large 

 coverts, a considerable proportion of which are the 

 property of the Dowager Lady Downe, whose estates 

 stretch north and south of Wykeham for many miles. 

 Bedale and Yedmandale, for instance, are woods of 

 great strength. About Seamer Lord Londesborough 

 has large coverts on his property ; and the river 

 Derwent coming from the northward has almost 

 continuous covert from Hackness till it issues on to 

 the plain. This vale, cultivated in mixed grass and 

 plough, and fenced in ordinary Yorkshire style, reaches 

 to the sea. Below Wykeham occurs a certain amount 

 of awkward carr ground, much of the same class as 

 that which, farther south. Lord Fitzwilliam and the 

 Grove divide between them — black open dykes, 

 awing any but the boldest. Along the Derwent Yale 

 are some few winns ; but, speaking generally, artificial 

 coverts are by no means a feature of Capt. Johnstone^s 

 country. 



The vale opens out a good deal below Pickering, 



VOL. II. Q 



