Hunting with HCH today takes place on private land. All of our country is away from the kennel and some of it is very distant. Rural Sprawl is the culprit, that even more pernicious evil twin of the urban kind. Nevertheless, we are very lucky and resourceful to have this land for our sport-and very obliged to the landowner. For this reason, if for no other, we must show the landowner and his property every respect. 

Many think that our hunt country is difficult. By that they mean hard to hunt and somewhat rough. Much of the country is wooded, or in covert, where the game like to hide and in which it is hard to see hounds. The terrain is mostly high, wide, open ridges cut with wooded draws. Many places are steep and rocky, but on the whole, the footing is good and safe. Horses take it well. 

The hunt country is beautiful, and some of the last open places most of us have the chance to visit. While foxhunting is not a nature ramble, enjoying nature is a happy part of the experience, and no foxhunter is immune to color in the fall or the purple haze of a wood in winter, despite protests to the contrary. As one anonymous Yorkshire farmer commented, when confronted by a visitor to the moors going on about the view, "I know nowt about beauty, but I'm a bugger for scenery".