IRISH HUNTERS. I$I 



disadvantage in accustoming the colt to stop dead 

 short on landing, a habit productive hereafter of 

 inconvenience to a loose rider taken unawares ! 



When he has taught his horse thus to walk over a 

 country, for two or three miles on end, the breaker con- 

 siders it, with reason, thoroughly trained for leaping, and 

 has no hesitation however low its condition, in riding it 

 out with the hounds. Who that has hunted in Ireland 

 but can recall the interest, and indeed amusement, with 

 which he has watched some mere baby, strangely 

 tackled and uncouthly equipped, sailing along in the 

 front rank, steered with consummate skill and temper 

 by a venerable rider who looks sixty on horseback, 

 and at least eighty on foot. The man's dress is of the 

 shabbiest and most incongruous, his boots are out- 

 rageous, his spurs ill put on, and his hat shows symptoms 

 of ill-usage in warfare or the chase ; but he sits in the 

 saddle like a workman, and age has no more quenched 

 the courage in his bright Irish eye, than it has soured 

 the mirth of his temperament, or saddened the music 

 of his brogue. You know instinctively that he must 

 be a good fellow and a good sportsman ; you cannot 

 follow him for half a mile without being satisfied that 

 he is a good rider, and you forget, in your admiration 

 of his beast's performance, your surprise at its obvious 



