The Ledbury. 237 



good except after recent lieavy rain. Many litters are 

 every year bred in this neighboorliood — tlie vixens 

 finding it easy enougli to draw any rabbit bole as an 

 earth, in the light soil of its banks. 



Just south of it commence the great chain of wood- 

 lands which extend right to the limit of the Ledbury 

 country, and far beyond into the Forest of Dean. 

 Beginning with the Dymock Woods, a ten-mile range 

 of woodland goes on along the slope of the hill with 

 Queen^s Wood, the Linton Woods, Aston Ingham and 

 the Newent Woods ; while at Huntley Major Probyn 

 has more great coverts, reaching to the Forest of 

 Dean — the rough depths of which are seldom visited 

 by any hounds. 



Turning again from rough to smooth, we find our- 

 selves in the third section of the Ledbury Country — 

 from Malvern to Gloucester along the Severnside. 

 And this forms the Friday country — Monday being 

 for the district just described, from the Kennels to 

 the edge of the Forest. Crossing over the Malvern 

 Hills you get on to a low vale that in many parts is 

 almost entirely level grass. The coverts are much 

 smaller; but foxes are always to be found; scent lies 

 well ; and altogether the Friday country is held to be 

 about the cream of the Hunt. Commencing at Hanley 

 kSwan and Upton, where it meets The Croome Country, 

 it extends along the west bank of the Severn, by 

 Tewkesbury and Gloucester, down to Westbury. Not 

 only do several brooks intersect the vale — such for 

 instance as the Chaceley Brook — but " rheins '^ and 

 " commission ditches ^^ make still further calls upon a 

 water jumper. JEthein, though not, as far as I can 



