A WEEK AT MELTON 39 



been left behind, disappointed men and women will 

 grumble sometimes at the intricacies of Loddington, 

 the steeps of Tilton and Skeffington, or the depths of 

 Launde, yet they will never fail to come there. 



Owston wood is different, for, though it is a long 

 covert, it is not very deep nor is the undergrowth 

 very thick. It is perfectly preserved and adequately 

 hunted. This, indeed, is the secret of success in any 

 woodland district. Constant hunting and woods pre- 

 served and kept quiet between the hunting days will 

 always produce stout foxes. If, as is the case in some 

 countries, shooting interests prevail, and hounds are 

 kept out of the coverts, there never can be first-rate 

 sport. One of the reasons why the Cottesmore show 

 such sport in their Tuesday country, is because they 

 have a Master and huntsman who know that no bril- 

 liancy in the open can result in good sport without it 

 rests on a foundation of hard work in the woods. 

 Thatcher works his woods and kills plenty of cubs in 

 the autumn, and the members of the hunt reap the 

 reward in the winter. 



To hunt with a pack of hounds, such as are the 

 Cottesmore, in a wooded district like the Tilton and 

 Owston portions of the hunt, where thick, deep and 

 often sticky coverts are surrounded by old turf carry- 

 ing a good scent, is in itself a training in hunting craft. 

 No one who does not pay close attention to hounds, or 

 who cannot understand what is going on to a certain 

 extent, will see much of the fun, unless fortune is very 

 kind to him or he has a pilot better instructed than 

 himself. But Melton goes to Tilton because after all 

 most of the visitors to the former place love hunting 

 as well as riding, hounds almost as much as horses. 

 The Melton people are drawn from the class who have 

 hunted for generations, and from those who with in- 



