54 In Scar/ct and Silk 



excellent sporting country can be ridden over, 

 though there is lots of plough, and you must 

 take the rough with the smooth. Mr. Garth's 

 and the Old Berkely I have never hunted 

 with. It must be confessed that the Surrey 

 packs, and also the West Kent, have a bad 

 country as a whole. Many is the day I have 

 spent with them, toiling over flint stones and 

 clay fallows, climbing hills like the side of 

 a house, and threading almost interminable 

 woodlands, in return for the very minimum 

 of sport. Fruit-growing and wire also seri- 

 ously militate against hunting here. 



But as I said before, the West Kent 

 get their compensation when they meet in 

 the Penshurst country. The East Kent is 

 an awful tract, except just in a very few 

 parts. I have treated of the Essex district 

 in the early portion of this chapter, and the 

 two foxhound packs, the Essex and Essex 

 Union, are turned out and hunted in really 

 smart fashion. To those who like a ditch 

 country — perhaps it is rather an acquired 

 taste — nothing better could be recommended 



