THE BEST IN THE WORLD. 389 



natural result of the former, the better the thorough- 

 bred sire of course the better will be his progeny, be 

 they thorough-bred, half-bred, three-fourths, or seven- 

 eighths-bred ; and the Irish have lately been showing 

 us that a race-horse, being Irish bred, is any thing 

 but a blot in his escutcheon. In fact when we con- 

 sider the far greater number of race-horses bred in 

 England to what are produced in Ireland, it will not 

 be found that the preponderance of good ones is very 

 large in our favour. 



I am told, and I doubt not it is the case, that the 

 character of the Irish hunter is also fast changing, 

 and the old short cocked-tailed hunter is fast verging 

 into the more blood-like and faster horse : this in fact 

 must be the case, for as they breed their hounds closer 

 in with our English blood, they of course are faster 

 than formerly, consequently they must also improve 

 the pace of their horses ; if they can do this, and still 

 keep up their former stoutness, they will unquestion- 

 ably have the best breed of hunters in the world for 

 any country. 



It has been objected to our horses that when taken 

 first into Ireland they tumble into all their fences ; 

 doubtless they do this, and unless our fences were 

 made the same as the Irish ones they must do so from 

 being strangers to Irish fences. 



Persons who have never been in Ireland always 

 attach the idea of stone walls to Irish fencing, whereas 

 in many hunts there such a thing as a wall is very 

 seldom met with : I doubt whether an Irish horse 

 accustomed only to a wall country would make a 

 better hand of the double ditches of their other 

 countries than one of ours. Riding in parts of 

 Galway, and parts of Meath or Kildare, differs as 



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