368 The Hunting Countries of England. 



inaSj in tlie fallows — or where tliey can find a sheltered 

 corner — afterwards. And in each and every case they 

 are nursed and tended by a sport-loving race of 

 farmers. 



The downs — (Once they were truly downs, in the 



acceptation that then conveyed a picture of soft 



herbage, a green springy surface — and " heads up and 



sterns down.''' But all that was upset when the price 



of wheat suddenly made the ploughshare a magician's 



wand, pointing to gold below the surface) — the downs, 



still bearing the unmerited title though now more 



deserving of that of wolds, take up a full half of the 



present S. and W. Wilts country. From Salisbury as 



an apex (whither the various dividing streams and 



valleys converge) they spread in fan shape to the 



north and west — Salisbury Plain alone occupying 



nearly half the fan, the Great Ridge forming another 



feather (some fifteen miles in length, and gradually 



spreading from three to eight in breadth), and below 



this a third but narrowest, range running due west 



along the border. Salisbury Plain has (beyond a little 



place at Chittern belonging to Mr. W. Long) not a 



covert upon it. From Tilshead to the Wiley Valley 



— a distance of fully half a dozen miles — it is entirely 



dependent on what the farmers can do ; and foxes are 



always to be found, until frost has withered the turnips. 



Till December, or sometimes later, they are put up by 



the field spreading themselves, and riding in line 



across the open. A fox thus found starts at the worst 



advantage with hounds, for a scramble over the open 



downs; and, if the scent be fairly good, they never 



leave him. Rousing him in this way from his kennel, 



