A Day With the Meath Hounds 259 



were springs, or as if she were jumping from the end of a 

 spring board, she arose again in the air, hghting airily on the 

 top of the next bank, then dropping into the next field with the 

 greatest of ease. 



The difficulty was then apparent ; the grey had been head- 

 ing for a part of the fence easily jumpable, which landed in 

 the corner of the next field where there was no lane. Tipper- 

 ary evidently knew this corner, and was making for it, and 

 might have followed the grey and no harm come of it. The 

 Captain, no doubt, would have taken the risk, knowing a sure- 

 footed horse was before him and that Tipperary never made 

 a mistake. Well, there we were in the field of ploughed land, 

 and there was nothing to do but jump back into the lane, stop 

 there and go out through the gate in the end of it, into the 

 field where the lady and the grey had gone. The return jump 

 was also against Tipperarj^'s judgment, her idea being to go 

 on after hounds, and she seemed to argue that if she could 

 jump into a field she could jump out of it again, and to turn 

 back was only a waste of time. Three times she refused to 

 jump the bank back into the lane. 



"Give a roar at her," cried an Irish labourer, "give a roar at 

 her." So at it we went again, but a roar from the rider was like- 

 A\ise ineffectual. Then out came three labourers into the field, 

 one stood behind, one on each side, and with hands full of soil 

 from one, a shillaly from another, and a roar and swinging of 

 arms from all three, Tipperary scrambled up the bank and 

 there she stopped. Then taking matters into her o^vn hands 

 again, walked a few steps along the top and let herself easilj^ 

 down into the lane. The gate was locked, but the labourers 

 lifted it from its hinges, opened it wrong end to, and after 

 receiving a suitable reward, sent us ofi* again with a cheer. 



There are some days when trouble won't be pacified with 

 one or two attempts to do us. This was the writer's day. We 

 were "on again and off again," when the first tiling the writer 



