WEEK AT MARKET HARBOROUGH 8i 



But the number of people who ride hard will always 

 be limited, and so will those who see a run. Yet 

 there is no sweeter country to ride over than this 

 Wednesday tract of the Pytchley. In this lies Lil- 

 boume Gorse, from which it is a standing wonder that 

 any fox ever succeeds in breaking, so closely is it 

 hemmed in with the railway. Crick, too, is one of 

 those fixtures that every one has heard about who 

 knows of or cares anything for fox-hunting at all. 

 Misterton, Kilworth Sticks and Stanford may be 

 added to the above, and the reason of the fame of 

 such coverts is that all around there lies a beautiful 

 grass country, divided by fences which are just big 

 enough to need that hounds should run for riders to 

 cross them freely. For while there are a very few 

 people who will always, fast or slow, ride the line 

 conscientiously with the hounds, there are many more 

 whose nerve will hardly permit them to ride freely 

 over the grass countries unless they are warmed by 

 pace and excitement. Whyte-Melville says some- 

 where that courage in the hunting-field is a question 

 of caloric. Certain it is that a low thermometer 

 reduces the number of riders to hounds, while warm 

 weather tempts even middle-aged men to deeds of 

 daring which they thought they had left behind with 

 their youth. 



There is something, too, in the very name of these 

 coverts which stimulates the fox-hunter. Crick Gorse 

 to Hillmorton and thence to Lilbourne is a short but 

 very pretty gallop. It owes something of its charm 

 to the fact that the fields are generally level as a 

 polo ground, and the fences, though now and then 

 guarded by big ditches, are fair. This ride should be 

 done with a scent in perhaps something less than 

 twenty minutes, yet, unless your horse is a very 



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