252 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



won't ye give any more? Well, man dear, make it guineas for 

 luck and she's yours." And so it was settled, eighty guineas. 



^'A high price is paid for that winsome mare. 

 The farmer seems pleased with the day, 

 A7id on his way home he is heard to declare. 

 He'll buy a new dress for his missis to wear. 

 And take her to town to the play." 



The difficulty in buying an Irish hunter in England is 

 first, the very high price that is asked and received for the 

 best, and secondly, English hunters, even if Irish bred, that 

 have been hunted at all in England are, for that very reason, 

 quite disqualified for hunting in America. English fences 

 are invariably hedges, ninety-five per cent of English cross 

 country riders shun timber as they would the ways of Satan. 



Horses hunted in England invariably brush through the 

 tops of hedge fences. When they go to America and try 

 the same trick on the stiff posts, and rail and rider fences, they 

 come to grief. A horse is such a slave to habit, he can seldom 

 be relied upon to overcome one thoroughly. 



It is far better in buying English or Irish bred horses .or 

 hunting in America to buy them unbroken. 



If a schooled hunter is required, they had better come from 

 the stone wall countries of Ireland, where they learn to jump 

 clear. 



