38^ The Hunting Countries of England. 



Mrs. Berryson, and Adamson, are iustances of a 

 system that owes much to Mr. Newcomen^s master- 

 ship. Nice flying fences and a good deal of grass 

 mark this level strip ; and, if we except the various 

 " stells '' [Anglice, brooks) which flow deep and 

 muddily across it, there is little or nothing to stop a 

 fair hunter. Stifl" clay is the ground work — as it is 

 also on the west ; where another slice of vale is found, 

 along the border of the Hurworth, by Marton down 

 to and beyond Stokesly. Here, too, the coverts are 

 small — being chiefly plantations and whins ; e.g., the 

 Blackmoor and Marton plantations and the whins of 

 Seamer and Rye Hill. Great woods, on the other 

 hand, are found clothing the sides of many of the 

 Cleveland hills, and the banks of the various '' gills '' 

 — another colloquialism, which may be translated as 

 dales, becks, gullies, coombes, ravines, &c., according 

 to the nativity or education of the reader. Wide 

 wooded icatercourses will perhaps answer for a general 

 rendering of the term. A range of woods faces the 

 kennels that alone might overawe the soul of a hunts- 

 man from a country of small coverts. But they are 

 well-rided as they are well-and-stoutly-foxed. Most 

 fortunately for the Hunt, they are the property of 

 crentlemen who take the strongest interest in its 

 prosperity. Thus the Kirkleatham Woods belong to 

 Mr. Newcomen, the AVilton Woods to Sir C. Lowther, 

 and those of Upleathara to Lord Zetland — and it is 

 scarcely exaggeration to assert that they might be 

 drawn every day of a week without failing to hold a 

 fox. Their staunch virtue is the more valuable as 

 they practically form the heart of the Cleveland 



