Lord Midclleton's. 313 



plantation to draw. Garreby Hill Top is for Garreby 

 Wood j while Sledmere witb its mass of coverts will 

 almost provide a day of itself. When Fimber Village 

 is named, the last-named woods are again likely to be 

 the scene of most of the work ; with Payne's Slack_, a 

 long larch strip, as an additional draw. Langton 

 Wold (the site of the old racecourse, and still a 

 training-ground — whereon Blair Athol and Blink 

 Bonny did their gallops) is a meet for a few small 

 whin coverts as a preface to the woods on the wold- 

 side. 



Wednesday takes in the low country — the vale of 

 York and of the Derwent — in the main a much stiflfer 

 soil and better scenting ground than anything on the 

 east. The fences too are stronger, and the ditches 

 deep and wide — while plough still prevails. Below 

 Bransby and Castle Howard (both of which stand on 

 higher ground) the vale begins in its pleasantest form ; 

 and Farlington is, perhaps, the best meet of the Hunt. 

 All round it there is a considerable amount of grass ; 

 and that it offers more than a fair sample of the York 

 hunting grounds was shown by the fact that the Ninth 

 Lancers, when quartered at that city, pitched upon it 

 as the scene of their steeplechases. From the small 

 covert at Farlington a fox is most likely to strike 

 upwards to the hills and woods about Bransby ; but 

 lie may, on the other hand, elect to run across to 

 Sheriff Hutton, a very similar meet and covert. And 

 the same choice, mutatis mutandis, is open to a fox 

 from the latter place. A sandy interval in the vale is 

 found in Stockton Forest and Strensall Common, a 

 wide extent of rough moor, to draw which the 



