IRISH HUNTERS. 147 



call it, in the shortest possible stride, of a few inches at 

 most, to make the second spring. Every good English 

 hunter will strike back with his hind legs when surprised 

 into sudden exertion, but only a proficient bred, or at 

 least, taught in the sister island, can master the feat 

 described above in such artistic form as leads one to 

 believe that, like Pegasus, the creature has wings at 

 every heel. No man who has followed hounds in 

 Meath, Kilkenny, or Kildare will ever forget the first 

 time, when, to use the vernacular of those delightful 

 countries, he rode "an accomplished hunter over an 

 intricate lep!" 



But the merit is not heaven-born. On the contrary, 

 it seems the result of patient and judicious tuition, 

 called by Irish breakers "training," in which they show 

 much knowledge of character and sound common 

 sense. 



In some counties, such as Roscommon and Conne- 

 mara, the brood mare indeed, with the foal at her 

 foot, runs wild over extensive districts, and, finding 

 no gates against which to lean, leaps leisurely from 

 pasture to pasture, pausing, perhaps, in her transit to 

 crop the sweeter herbage from some bank on which she 

 is perched. Where mamma goes her little one dutifully 

 follows, imitating the maternal motions, and as a 



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