IRISH HUNTERS. 155 



this side of the Channel. It is child's play to fly a 

 Leicestershire fence, even with an additional rail, for 

 a horse that has been taught his business amongst 

 the precipitous banks and fathomless ditches of Meath 

 or Kildare. If the ground were always sound and 

 the hills somewhat levelled, these Irish hunters would 

 find little to stop them in Leicestershire from going 

 as straight as their owners dared ride. Practice at 

 walls renders them clever timber-jumpers, they have 

 usually the spring and confidence that make nothing 

 of a brook, and their careful habit of preparing for 

 something treacherous on the landing side of every 

 leap prevents their being taken unawares by the 

 " oxers " and doubles that form such unwelcome ex- 

 ceptions to the usual run of impediments throughout 

 the shires. There is something in the expression of 

 their very ears while we put them at their fences, 

 that seems to say, " It's a good trick enough, and 

 would take in most horses, but my mother taught me 

 a thing or two in Connemara, and you don't come over 

 me ! " Unfortunately the Shires, as they are called 

 par excellence, the Vale of Aylesbury, a perfect wilder- 

 ness of grass, and indeed all the best hunting districts, 

 ride very deep nine seasons out of ten, so that the 

 Irish horse, accustomed to a sound lime-stone soil and 



