THE HOLDERNESS. 149 



miicli easier to get into than out of, as the bottoms are not 

 sounder than the banks. This covert, it will be seen, could 

 not be drawn by hounds, hence terriers are called into requisi- 

 tion whenever it is visited, and men climb up and disturb the 

 top with long sticks, as foxes like to lay high and dry when 

 they can, and the fagots and bushes on the top afford them 

 shelter and hiding-places, as well as the hollows beneath. The 

 other parts of Holderness are as difficult to cross as this, the 

 country being flat, and exceedingly heavy. It also is divided 

 by drains, though happily the banks are, for the most part, 

 sounder than in the Carrs, and, on a good bold water-jumper, 

 you can generally get over them with safety, though as many of 

 them are defended by a hedge on one side or the other, and 

 this, when large, cannot be taken in the stride, it requires a 

 quiet, clever horse, that will creep as well as jump, who 

 can go well from his hind legs, and cover a good distance when 

 through the hedge, to get safely over them. In fact, here, if in 

 any place in England, you want a hunter, and he must not only 

 be very strong, but very well bred, to carry a man of any weight 

 over it. The other, or western portion of the country, is en- 

 tirely on the wolds, open hills, light land, and, for the most 

 part, light fences — such a country as hounds can and do race 

 over, and men must go the pace to be with them. They must 

 also jump in places, for the quick or thorn fences are getting 

 oldish now, and have been carefully tended and trained from 

 infancy, so that they are nearly five feet high, and, for the 

 greater portion of that height, as stiff as strong timber. A 

 horse rather blown, and striking them low down, would be 

 rolled over to the greatest certainty. In the bottoms, between 

 the hills, you come upon an occasional ditch, but they are by 

 no means frequent in this part of the country. Beswi(ik Hall, 

 and the parts round about it, is perhaps as strongly fenced as 

 any of the wolds, and, unless memory deceives me, there is 

 a very beautiful gorse near there. Elton AYestwood, Old Dale> 

 and the Bishop's Burton woods, are some of the best coverts 



