IRISH HUNTERS. 145 



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For those who have never hunted in Ireland, I must 

 explain that the country as a general rule is fenced 

 on a primitive system, requiring little expenditure of 

 capital beyond the labour of a man, or, as he is there 

 called, "a boy," with a short pipe in his mouth and 

 a spade in his hand. This light-hearted operative, 

 gay, generous, reckless, high-spirited, and by no means 

 a free worker, simply throws a bank up with the soil 

 that he scoops out of the ditch, reversing the process, 

 and filling the latter by levelling the former, when a 

 passage is required for carts, or cattle, from one in- 

 closure to the next. I ought nevertheless to observe, 

 that many landlords, with a munificence for which I 

 am at a loss to account, go to the expense of erecting 

 massive pillars of stone, ostensibly gate-posts, at com- 

 manding points, between which supports, however, they 

 seldom seem to hang a gate, though it is but justice 

 to admit that when they do, the article is usually of 

 iron, very high, very heavy, and fastened with a strong 

 padlock, though its object seems less apparent, when 

 we detect within convenient distance on either side 

 a gap through which one might safely drive a gig. 



It is obvious, then, that this kind of fence, at its 

 widest and deepest, requires considerable activity as 

 well as circumspection on a horse's part, and forbearance 



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