248 HORSEMANSHIP. 



in width, often bank-full, and sometimes overflow- 

 ino^ its banks, which are often hollow, and o-enerallv 

 rotten. In most of our best countries, few runs of 

 extent take place without a brook, or brooks, being 

 to be crossed ; and no description of obstacle to 

 which the sportsman is subject in crossing a coun- 

 try is the cause of so many disasters. 



In what are termed the Provincial Hunting: 

 Countries, in contradistinction to Leicestershire, 

 and the other chiefly grazing countries, timber, 

 with the exception of stiles, and now and then 

 gates, is not so frequent, nor is the ox-fence to be 

 seen at all ; but there is comparatively more fenc- 

 ing, though chiefly hedges and ditches. In many 

 of these, Dorsetshire in particular, the fences are 

 generally what is termed double ; that is, there is 

 a ditch on each side of the hedge, which it requires 

 a horse to be prepared for, by receiving, if not his 

 education, a good deal of instruction in the country. 

 In other parts of England, Cheshire and Lanca- 

 shire, for example, we find fences that require an 

 apprenticeship. They consist of a hedge and ditch, 

 not of large dimensions, but in consequence of the 

 former being planted on a cop, or bank, a horse 

 must land himself on the cop before he can get his 

 footing to clear the fence, provided the hedge be 

 on the rising side. Were he to spring at it from 

 the level of the field, and clear the bank, together 

 with the hedge and ditch, the exertion would be 

 so great as soon to exhaust his powers. Those 

 fences require horses very active and ready with 

 their hinder-legs, and also riders with good hands. 



