352 THE SHIRES AND THEIR FENCES. 



have to be sufficiently stiff to keep in the placid tempered 

 cows, which do not require very formidable means of 

 restraint. For horses and bullocks, which with sheep are 

 the great support of the farmers of the Midlands, far bigger 

 and stiffer obstacles have to be constructed, in order to keep 

 them in bounds. Bullocks become particularly frisky, when 

 they get into condition, and are fermented by flies. Also, 

 beasts with horns (Shorthorns, Herefords, and Welsh for 

 instance), take pleasure in destroying fences with these 

 weapons. Polled cattle are seldom seen in the Midlands. 

 Consequently, the fences in the Shires are admirable 

 tests for the respective jumping and riding capabilities of 

 horse and man. Figs. 218 and 221 give a general idea of the 

 nature of the country in the Midlands. 



Woodland foxes as a rule give better runs than gorse 

 covert foxes ; probably because the former have more time 

 to mature their plans, and may steal away from a wood ; but 

 the latter are always viewed away from a gorse and are 

 holloaed at. 



Increase of pasture, improved ideas among farmers as to 

 the advisability of preserving purity of breed in their sheep, 

 and the necessity, in these bad times, of preventing loss of 

 " keep " by trespass, are the chief causes of the fences in the 

 Shires being much more formidable nowadays than formerly. 



The presence of ridge-and-furrow (p. 356) proves that the 

 Midlands were once (many years ago) arable land. I learn 

 from Captain King-King that " the late Admiral Meynell told 

 me that in the beginning of his father's mastership of the 

 Quorn (1753 to 1800), there were practically no fences between 

 Six Hills (about six miles north of the Quorn Kennels) and 

 Nottingham. The chief obstacles must then have been 

 brooks and bottoms. When the thorn fence was first planted, 

 it required a double post and rail to protect it, as the compara- 

 tively new fence in Scraptoft big field has now. When the 



