208 VARIETY IN HUNTING COUNTRIES 



tableland enough, and one that, under other circum- 

 stances, would have been voted monotonous. The 

 hounds raced and the horses pulled, and all went well. 

 The trees of Booliglass were well away on the left, 

 and still the hounds raced, but the horses pulled no 

 more. The thick atmosphere prevented me from 

 taking any landmarks, though I think the M.F.H. 

 knew every field he leaped into, but at last we found 

 ourselves upon stony ground ; hounds checked, and 

 the mist cleared away, and then, as it lifted, rose an 

 involuntary " Oh ! " such as one hears on illumination 

 nights when the many coloured sparks burst from the 

 rocket over a cockney crowd. We were looking down 

 on the lovely valley of the Suir. Bessborough, among 

 its splendid timber and sweeps of greensward, lay, so 

 it seemed, at our feet, Castletown Woods to the right 

 of that again, and the well-wooded vale towards 

 Carrick, Kilsheelan, and Clonmel. Through the valley 

 ran the shining river and beyond it and opposite to 

 us the Tower Hill of Curraghmore and the Carrick 

 Woods with the Comeraghs towering behind them, while 

 wood and mountain framed the picture to the west as 

 far as the eye could reach. We had a rare gallop up 

 to that point ; but though I remember it well to the 

 check, the view from the stony hill is all I can tell 

 of the finish without reference to the diary. I shall 

 never forget that "Oh!" 



It must be understood that the countries I have 

 recently mentioned are what are known as countries 

 which are chiefly under pasture, and which commend 

 themselves from a rider's point of view to our notice. 

 The country from which I write has in itself no great 



