284 The Hunting Countries of England. 



among the Lowlands; but many of its hillsides wiU 

 compare with either Aberdeenshire or Inverness, for 

 steepness and severity ; and riding is out of the 

 question immediately outside the precincts of the little 

 country in question. Sheep farms yield here a more 

 profitable return than grouse moors ; heather is freely 

 burned ; and^ consequently _, where the lower slopes are 

 open to the foxhunter, he will find himself almost con- 

 tinually on thick green grass. The tilled vale carries 

 quite a fair scent at most times ; but the green sheep- 

 walks of the hills hold an exuberant scent to which 

 hounds can always fly. Naturally the riding in the one 

 case is subject to very diff'erent conditions to what it is 

 under in the other. In the low country^ constant little 

 obstacles have to be surmounted, requiring experience 

 and discrimination on the part of both horse and man. 

 Great jumping power or great boldness are seldom 

 called for; but if the fences are ragged to the eye, 

 they are not left with their gaps unmended, nor are 

 they by any means built to any one universal pattern. 

 The hedges are low and the thorn is of a dwarfed and 

 stubbly growth ; but every opening is patched up with 

 light timber, and often a low bank assists an otherwise 

 insignificant fence. Ditches are rarely considered 

 necessary : and nature has provided very few streams 

 which have not a firm pebbly bottom under shallow 

 water. The Dalton Brook, near the Kennels, is almost 

 the only instance of a wide and often unavoidable 

 water-jump. Wire, too, comes in extensively for fence 

 making — not often, however, as an adjunct, and very 

 seldom as a hidden snare. A great number of the 

 fields are divided, one from the other, only by quadra- 



