FOX-HUNTING TYPES 229 



of wire on top of a bank last day he was out, and 

 the coped demesne wall at Kilballysmash on 

 Saturday last ! " 



We may be sure that when strangers appear 

 at a meet the huntsman, especially if he be an 

 amateur, casts a wary and inquiring eye upon 

 them ; appraising them in his own mind, and in- 

 wardly settling (with a view to further notice) who 

 will be a "likely fellow to press them at a check." 

 I have before now received the confidences and 

 apprehensions of a huntsman on such an occasion, 

 and have lived to hear him confess his mistake at 

 the end of the day. 



As to the age of the Man who Hunts to Ride, has 

 it a limit ? Mr. Robert Watson once declared that no 

 man who smoked was worth — well ! not much — to ride 

 across country after he was sixty ; but in this, I think, 

 the veteran was for once mistaken, bearing in mind 

 that his friend and brother M.F.H,, Sir John Power, 

 who enjoyed a long cigar to the end of his life, was 

 a rare good man on a four-year old when he was 

 seventy, and fairly " set " a large field of horsemen 

 with the Heythrop hounds at that age. Sir John, 

 however, like Mr. Watson, and the hero of the 

 following tale, was one of those who "ride to 

 hunt " — a species that survives rather longer in the 

 field than the other, I am inclined to believe. " Age 

 cannot tame, nor custom stale " some fox-hunters, 

 that is certain. 



I recollect years ago having a hunting friend 

 to dine with me at Boodle's. At an adjoining table 

 sat a party of delightfully cheery, fresh-coloured 



