THE BALLYHILLY BEAGLES 13 



ordhering wid Tim Daly, to lade the pack in for the 

 Squire this saison ? " 



" An' did the Squire ordher you breeches to match ? " 

 asked one of the company. 



"Did ye iver see a huntsman in green breeches, ye 

 gossoon ? " replied Denis, scornfully. " One would 

 think that ye grudged me the thrifle for the coat, after 

 me taching ye all ye know about hare -hunting." 



" Whisht, ye devils ! " shouted Pat Lynch, Denis's 

 right-hand man in the field. " Sure, we've got to fix the 

 'lay on' for next Saturday"; adding with a knowing 

 wink, " Let Denis look afther his colours himself." 



In the Ballyhilly district hares were few and far 

 between, as the estates were divided chiefly into small 

 holdings, and the hares, therefore, very naturally fell a 

 prey to the guns of the tenants. Denis, consequently, 

 proposed that the opening meet should be held at Black 

 Bog, a wide tract of sparsely populated swamp and moor- 

 land, which lay some six miles from the village of 

 Ballyhilly. This proposal met with the warm approval 

 of the rustic sportsmen, as a good day's hunting was 

 assured to the Squire by the fixture. 



On the appointed day, Denis, in all the glory of his new 

 uniform, and surrounded by some seven or eight couples 

 of hounds of all strains and heights, from twenty-inch 

 harriers down to the smallest of rabbit-beagles, started 

 out of the village, pursued by the good-natured witticisms 

 of every Biddy and Molly from her doorsteps, to walk the 

 six miles or so of steep road which lay between Ballyhilly 



