302 The Hunting Countries of England. 



of the coverts of The North Cotswold, indeed^ are 

 hillside woods, plantations, and natural gorses — the 

 vale coverts of Dumbleton, Gallejpot, Leasow Brakes, 

 Paxford Blakemore, and Cleeve Banks, being, with 

 West Gorse and Sezincote Warren on the top of the 

 hills, about the only exceptions. When the coverts 

 underbill are being drawn, it is of course a moot 

 question as to whether you should ride above or 

 below ; but, besides the established fact that more 

 foxes will break over a hill than below it, it is as well 

 to bear in mind that you can generally get down hill 

 pretty quickly, though it by no means follows that 

 you can make your way fast up it. The largest woods 

 are those of Guiting and Hailes, near the edge of the 

 neighbouring Cotswold country ; Litcombe, on the 

 hillside between Hailes and Broadway (the site of the 

 Kennels) ; and Weston Park, near Campden and the 

 farther extremity of the Cotswold Hills. The last- 

 named is an especial stronghold and standby to the 

 Hunt ; and seldom does a week pass without finding 

 hounds at work there. 



The wall country on the summit of the hills is 

 exactly similar in character to the wolds of the Cots- 

 wold, the Heythrop, the Badminton, and the Yale of 

 White Horse, already described. It wants wet, and 

 plenty of it, to hold a scent — the one instance to the 

 contrary being the occasion of an east wind in dusty 

 March. When hounds can carry a head, they drive 

 along in such a fashion as is seen nowhere else, unless 

 it be occasionally on the unfenced Hampshire or 

 Brighton downs. They then fling over the walls in 

 a body, leaving one field after another behind them. 



