The hedges are often high and straggling, and there are numerous woods and plantations containing much oak. Some of the woods are very ancient and probably form part of the primeval forests that once largely covered England. Epping Forest in Essex, the Forest of Blean and the King's Wood in Kent, have probably never been cultivated land. In the days when ships were made of oak these woods and hedges were very valuable, but now they are of little use as sources of timber. Instead they are valued for quite another reason: they afford shelter for foxes and for game birds. The clay districts are and always have been famous for fox hunting; the Pytchley, Quorn, Belvoir, {102} and other celebrated packs have their homes in the broad, clay, grassy vales of the Midlands. The vale of Blackmoor and other clay regions are equally famous. The plantations and hedgerows are fine places for primroses and foxgloves, while in the pastures, and especially the poor pastures, are found the ox-eyed daisy and quaking grass, that make such fine nosegays, as well as that sure sign of poverty, the yellow rattle. But many of these poor pastures have been improved by draining, liming, and the use of suitable manures. Although the roads are better than they were (see p. 30) they are still often bad and lie wet for weeks together in winter, especially where the hedges are high. Numerous brick and tile yards may be found and iron ore is not uncommon; in some places it is worked now, in others it is no longer worked and nothing remains of the lost industry save only a few names of fields, of ponds, or of cottages. [Illustration: Fig. 47. Highly cultivated sand in Kent. Gooseberries are growing in the foreground, vegetables behind, and hops in background] A sandy soil is in so many ways the opposite of a clay soil that we shall expect to find corresponding differences in the look of the country. A sandy soil does not hold water: it may get water up from the subsoil to supply the plant (see p. 66), or, if it happens to lie in a basin of clay, it may even be very wet: otherwise it is likely to be too dry for ordinary plants. We may therefore look out for two sorts of sand country, the one cultivated because there is enough water for the crops, and the other not cultivated because the water is lacking. These can readily be found.