274i The Ranting Countries of England, 



THE COTSWOLD.* 



Cheltenham is at once tlie base and main source of the 

 Cots wold Hunt. Without the existence of Chelten- 

 ham there might have been difficulty in ever consti- 

 tuting this as a separate country — still more in main- 

 taining it. The pretty and popular town nestles in a 

 hollow, with the Cots wold Hills forming a half moon 

 round it. The Kennels are at their feet, just on the 

 outskirts of the town ; and it is almost exclusively 

 on these heights that hounds go forth to hunt the 

 fox. 



A word of history is necessary here, to date the 

 formation of the country. The late Earl Fitzhardinge 

 hunted not only the present Berkeley Country; bat 

 every alternate month during the season moved his 

 hounds from Berkeley Castle to the Cheltenham 

 Kennels in order to hunt the present Cotswold and 

 North Cotswold (then termed the Broadway) districts. 

 Soon after his death his successor, Admiral Berkeley, 

 limited his ground to the Cheltenham and Tewkesbury 

 road — thus reserving for himself the Tewkesbury-and- 

 Gloucester Vale, and leaving the hills behind Chelten- 



* Vide Stanford's " Hunting Map," Sheet 15, and Hobson's 

 Foxhunting- Atlas. 



