HORSES. 317 



brated for its breed of horses. They were of that class 

 denominated " the old Irish hunter/' a strong, well- 

 boned, and enduring animal, that without any pretension to 

 extraordinary speed, was sufficiently fast for fox-hounds, an 

 excellent weight-carrier, and, better still, able to live with 

 any dogs and in any country. As fencers, this breed was 

 unequalled ; and for a crack hunter to carry ten or eleven 

 stone over six feet six of solid masonry, was no extraordi- 

 nary event ; seven feet has been achieved repeatedly 

 and there are still, I have no doubt, many horses in the 

 province capable of performing the latter feat. But, alas ! 

 this noted class of hunters is now comparatively rare 

 a higher-blooded, and, as all admit, an inferior caste has 

 been substituted the rasing hunter fills the stables that 

 formerly were occupied by the old Boscommon weight-carrier 

 and in a few years this celebrated and valuable animal will 

 be seldom seen. The number of English thorough-bred 

 horses introduced within the last thirty years into the Con- 

 naught racing studs, gradually introduced a slight and un- 

 serviceable hybrid and, too late, gentlemen discovered the 

 error of endeavouring to procure a cross, which should combine 

 increased speed with those durable qualities that alone can 

 enable a horse, under reasonable weight, to live with fast 

 hounds in a country where they can go for miles without 

 a check, and where the leaps are always severe, and occasion- 

 ally tremendous. 



Of the riders, it may be observed that, much as Connaught 

 has been celebrated for desperate horsemanship, no charge of 

 degeneracy will lie against the present race. To the curious 

 in break-neck fencing, I would recommend a sojourn with a 

 Connaught club or if that should be inconvenient, a visit to 

 the steeple-chases on the plains or at Knockcroghery would 

 be sufficient he will there see six feet walls especially built 

 <c for the nonce," under the inspection of conscious stewards, 

 who would give nothing but honest measure, taken at racing 

 speed, and that too in the middle of a bunch of gentlemen, 

 who would ride over an adopted child ; or let him join a 

 drag after a champaign lunch at Lord C.'s ; let him do this, 

 and then form his estimate of Connaught horsemanship. 



A mistake prevails in England, as to the supposed inferiority 

 in value of the horses commonly employed by the Western 



