VARIETY IN HUNTING COUNTRIES 209 



claims to natural beauty (save in the actual valleys 

 of the Barrow and Slaney — two rivers by which it is 

 watered), were it not for the glorious mountain views 

 of the Mount Leinster range and the more distant 

 Wicklow Mountains, which we never lose, no matter 

 in what part of the district we are hunting ; and in 

 winter, when snow sheets the tops that rise to an 

 elevation of more than sixteen hundred feet, one 

 cannot well imagine anything more beautiful than 

 those distant views. But, as was remarked before, 

 almost every Irish view has its share of these. Lord 

 Fitzwilliam's territory presents a combination almost 

 unequalled of moor and mountain, woodland and 

 pastoral plain. Kildare, with its stout foxes running 

 up into the sweet Wicklow Mountains ; Waterford, 

 with the dark Comeraghs dominating the cream of 

 its grass ; Wexford, with the southern slopes of the 

 Mount Leinster range rising high above the sporting 

 lowlands ; Louth, with exquisite views of the Mourne 

 Mountains — upon all one might descant at length, 

 which should prove wearisome. And Royal Meath, 

 deadly flat though most of what Sam Reynell called its 

 " boundless plains " may be, has views of the Dublin 

 hills and possesses uplands above Tankardstown and 

 over far Loughcrew, commanding most glorious 

 panoramas. Galway, with all its wild wealth of grass, 

 may, perhaps, be the exception ; and the sadness which 

 the grey walls seem to lend to the landscape gives a 

 sterile effect to much of a country which I have seldom 

 visited. 



Then, quite apart from the attractions of lovely 

 scenery, I often wonder if the favoured individuals 



Hounds, Gentlemen, Please. 15 



