206 VARIETY IN HUNTING COUNTRIES 



Now, while admitting that the picturesque is met 

 with in every county in England, and much that has 

 beauty in its own quiet way, I think it must be allowed 

 that most of the crack countries are not celebrated for 

 striking or romantic landscape. Some exceptions there 

 are, no doubt — and notably in the North Country — 

 which suggest themselves readily enough ; but in 

 Ireland there is scarcely a grass country in some portion 

 of which the background is not filled by some blue 

 mountain or noble range of hills, while river scenery 

 of the most enchanting kind is very frequent — scenery 

 that, to my mind, is enhanced by the sight of a pack 

 of hounds, with their scarlet- and black-coated followers 

 moving swiftly along by the wondrous green margin 

 of the sparkling water. 



Naturally, in Ireland as in England, the most 

 romantic scenery is to be found in countries that are 

 unrideable ; and though the Kerry beagles have a 

 fame of their own, there are no foxhounds to be 

 found in that loveliest of Irish counties, where moun- 

 tain, lake, and forest forbid the use of the steed. In 

 the neighbouring county of Cork, however, fox- 

 hunting prevails in the midst of scenery, wild and 

 very beautiful in the west, where Miss Edith Somer- 

 ville reigned over the West Carbery ; though at times 

 hounds pursue their quarry relentlessly over a country 

 which looks only accessible to a goat, followed never- 

 theless by horses. To the east of the same county by 

 the banks of the Irish Rhine, the C.C.H. have many 

 a gallop along the lovely Blackwater Valley, and I can 

 never forget the evening we ran a fox to ground at 

 old Strancally Castle — a picturesque ruin that looks as 



