382 " ALTIUS IBUNT QUI AD SUMMA." 



We will now speak of their natural leaping quali- 

 ties. Here they are, as a nation of horses (if I may 

 use the term) unrivalled ; leaping seems as natural 

 to an Irish horse as swimming to a duck : as I before 

 said, they all leap. I believe it is bred in them. 



I had heard a great deal of six-feet walls before I 

 came here, and, never having seen one taken, I used 

 to say ne crede. I now beg to make my " amende 

 honorable" to my worthy friends here. Such leaps 

 are frequently done, and a horse lately took a wall 

 that I have seen in the neighbourhood of Ballinasloe 

 six feet six inches, one as immovable as stone and 

 mortar could make it ; and a friend on whose veracity 

 I can depend saw a horse take a capped stone wall, 

 six feet three inches, under very disadvantageous cir- 

 cumstances ; in fact, he half-baulked, and took it al- 

 most sideways : he merely knocked a stone off the 

 top. The truth was, the man got frightened, which 

 caused the horse to hesitate at first : he afterwards 

 took it in spite of his rider, who would have been 

 glad had it been refused altogether. 



Such things are, of course, not commonly done in 

 hunting, but they show the capability of Irish horses. 



Let me now refer again to Leicestershire. There 

 is a certain brook there which, when "a find" happens 

 at Billesden, is often converted into a cold bath. 

 It is often rode over, quite as often rode into, and 

 certainly is rather a teaser : still, I could find many 

 a Galloway in this country who would never make a 

 mistake in it ; in some proof of which I commissioned 

 a sporting friend of mine in Essex, to make a bet on 

 my part that I would produce a little Irish horse, not 

 fourteen hands three inches, that should carry me, 

 (eleven stone,) over the Mar Dyke, a thing never at- 



