410 The Hunting Countries of England. 



THE MONMOUTHSHIRE.* 



Abeegavennt is tlie basepoint of the Momoutlisliire 

 Hunt — tlie kennels of the town lying at the feet of 

 impossibility. Blorenge Mountains just behind might, 

 with all their rugged height, fail of themselves to 

 forbid foxhunting; but collieries and ironworks step 

 in a fe^v miles westward, and mountain -ward, and 

 entirely cut off a country that a Welsh-taught foxhound 

 might otherwise make light of. For mountains in 

 Monmouthshire are but as molehills in Cheshire, and 

 a high bred hound accustomed to the former is just as 

 good a climber as a fox^ on the same principle of 

 contrariety, possibly, as makes Londoners the best 

 mountaineers. A foxhound in good condition is not 

 only just as active as his enemy in surmounting rough 

 ground and steep ascents, but is much more enduring 

 — and the scene of a fox lying dead-blown on a rocky 

 ledge, while hounds jump noisily and vigorously at 

 him from below, is not at all uncommon. The hills 

 hunted by the Monmouthshire are by no means rocky 

 as a rule : but on the great Skyrrid — or, as it is more 

 often termed, the Holy Mountain — there are sheer 



* Vide Stanford's " Hunting Map," Sheet 14, and Hohson's 

 Foxhunting Atlas. 



