South-and'West Wilts, 367 



gripped meadows, even thougli bank-and- ditch fences 

 call for less exhausting effort than strong stake-and- 

 bounds, that have to be covered at a fly. 



Adjoining this little section of vale, there runs near 

 the southern margin of the S. and W. Wilts a narrow 

 and low, but broken and strongly wooded^ strip almost 

 to Salisbury. Before entering this — about Wincombe 

 and Donhead — the country is absolutely hilly, stoutly 

 inclosed and distinct from down, and is backed up by 

 the great ornamental woods of Fonthill Abbey, where 

 our revered preceptor Beckford lived, hunted, and 

 planted. From anywhere here a fox may run down 

 into the vale, whether of the S. and W. Wilts, the 

 East Dorset, or the Blackmoor Vale — the three 

 countries touching each other close to Gillingham, and 

 about five miles from the town of Shaftesbury. But 

 from Wardour Castle up to about Barford, is a com- 

 plete chain of woods, underlying the jhigh gorse- 

 sprinkled ridge which marks the southern border 

 between the S. and W. Wilts and the East Dorset. 



With another great chain of woods in the Witham 

 district to west, and the two enormous coverts of the 

 Groveley and Great Ridge on the uplands, it is patent 

 enough that the South-and-West Wilts has at least its 

 share of coverts. Yet quite a third of its present 

 area is without a covert of any sort ! All the rest of 

 it — not hitherto alluded to, is open down, of the Ted- 

 worth and Hampshire kind — lofty, undulating, 

 unfenced, mostly ploughed, and totally unplanted. 

 Roots and corn are sown on it, and a short turf clothes 

 such slopes as are still left for sheep walk. Foxes lie 

 in the corn in summer, among the turnips till Christ- 



