166 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



the magnificent scale on which everything is conducted, the 

 country itself affords so much variety. On the Severn side, and 

 on that next the Yale of White Horse, they have grass country, 

 second only to the pastures that Leicestershire and Northamp- 

 tonshire afford. On the Bechampstead side they can race 

 over downs as fine as any in England, often without a fence 

 to throw a horse out of his stride, and in the inter- 

 mediate portions you have a wall country, which is exceedingly 

 pleasant to ride over (at least for those who like walls, amongst 

 which number I must class myself). Here is change enough to 

 please any man, and the best of it is that there is scarcely any 

 country in it that can be termed bad. Of course some parts 

 carry a better scent than others, and a day wholly devoted to 

 the lower woods is not exactly the same thing as drawing 

 Scraptoft or Melton Spinney ; but those same lower woods are 

 a great nursery for foxes, and a capital place for teaching young 

 hounds their duties amongst the cubs ; and, moreover, in the 

 season they at times show very good sport, when a fox will 

 condescend to leave them, and put his head across the Berkeley 

 Vale. But the great thing in this hunt is the certainty of a 

 find in a short time, for the country is full of foxes, and it is, 

 or was, no unusual thing for them to jump up from under the 

 walls in the open fields ; then what a rattler they have ! for the 

 great dog-hounds (unless they are altered) fly the walls in theii 

 stride, and there is no time lost at the fences. Poor Clark 

 always liked big hounds, on account of getting over the walls 

 more easily, and, when he was in his high day at Badminton, 

 said to me that, if he had to kill a certain number of foxes in a 

 given time for a wager, he would take his dog-hounds in pre- 

 ference to the bitches, — a somewhat unusual opinion amongst 

 huntsmen and masters, as some of the most noted amongst 

 the latter have said that from choice they would never take a 

 dog-hound into the field. However, as I have before observed, 

 all customs do not suit all countries, and over walls I certainly 

 think Clark's theory is entitled to some weight, especially after 



