92 THE IMAGE OF WAE 



which lay spread out below us like a map, and reach- 

 ing the plain near Johnville, led us over big fields 

 and bigger fences to ground at Newlands, near 

 Clondalkin. Is that five miles from the Mansion 

 House ? Not more, I fancy ; but a few years later 

 they ran to the cemetery by Kathmines, which bears 

 to Dublin the relative position of Wormwood Scrubbs 

 to London. 



How memory makes the pen run on ! I had not 

 meant to describe this day at all, but this run it was 

 made me vow I would have a season with the Kildares 

 yet, which vow I was. enabled to keep some few years 

 later. 



When I returned to Klldare, Goodall still carried 

 the horn, and Major St Leger Moore, who had safely 

 steered his way through the Land League troubles, 

 still held the reins of Mastership. 



If Meath is a country where blood and " scope " are 

 as necessary as in Leicestershire, Kildare is assuredly 

 the one of all others where a clever horse is necessary. 

 In fact, the cleverest of them tumble about in Kildare. 

 Nothing strikes the Saxon so much as the number 

 of falls he sees when hunting in Ireland. To be sure, 

 nine times out of ten a fall over a bank is nothing, 

 whereas an " imperial crowner " over timber is very 

 often something to remember for life. 



In England we are used to seeing a certain class 

 of sportsmen — no longer young and not too desperate 

 thrusters — who can afford to pay a round figure for 

 a safe conveyance, hunt day after day, and perhaps 

 not have a fall in the season. Nothing struck me 

 more in Ireland than the sight of such Nimrods often 

 with dirty backs. The explanation was simple ; it 

 always began: "It wasn't the horse's fault, but" — 



