300 The Hunting Countries of England. 



THE NOETH COTSWOLD.* 



The Cotswold Hills forming a continuous plateau, 

 from Bath to the borders of Warwickshire, the 

 eastern end, together with a certain amount of under- 

 lying vale, is the North Cotswold Country. The 

 upper ground is of regular Cotswold type — light 

 plough and limestone walls ; while the lower is strong 

 soil, stoutly fenced, and carrying quite as much grass 

 as arable. The hill proper occupies about a moiety of 

 the country — commencing half a dozen miles from 

 Cheltenham, and reaching along the borders of the 

 Heythrop, till it breaks into a vale about Campden, 

 and lets the Great Western across on its way north. 

 Beyond this is a square patch of the county of 

 Warwick, held neutrally by The North Cotswold and 

 The Warwickshire, and containing the separate and 

 easier eminences of Stoke and Ilmington, with their 

 various little coverts. Round and underneath these 

 runs a beautiful grass valley, which is equal to 

 anything of the same limit in the Shires. Foxes, 

 however, seldom care to venture across it; unless 

 whcH found by the Warwickshire in the lower ground. 



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

 Foxhunting Atlas. 



