HUNTING TOURS. 171 



CHAPTER X. 



THE HEYTHROP HOUNDS AND COUNTRY. 



The great diversity of country which sig- 

 nalises this far-famed district, highly interest- 

 ing as it is to those who follow hounds o'er 

 hill and dale, is anything but conducive to 

 scent, therefore, to ensure runs, it is impera- 

 tively necessary in breeding hounds that the 

 essential faculty of nose be studied with the 

 utmost care. 



On the north-western boundary, about 

 Moreton- in -the -Marsh and Stow -on -the - 

 Wold, stone walls, hedges, and ditches, with 

 occasionally the Evenload and Kingham 

 brooks to negotiate, call forth the instincts 

 of accomplished hunters ; and a similar des- 

 cription of country is continued southward 

 along the borders of the Cotswold Hunt to 

 Farmington Grove and T^ew Barn, although 

 in that neighbourhood the walls predominate, 



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