248 PEECEPT AND PEACTICE. 



two sovereigns for every gate we may find (in a walk 

 over a farm) more than four feet seven as it is hung, 

 if he will engage to give me one for each field gatt 

 we find, on measurement, to be lower. Of course, I 

 mean in counties where gates are of common height, 

 and on farms where they are so, also. Let me ob- 

 serve that timber leaps always appear higher than 

 they really are, the rails of the gate and the inter- 

 stices producing a deceptive appearance as to the 

 height. Independent of this, there is a noli me tan- 

 gere look about a gate that with the boldest riders 

 always causes them to eye such obstacles with closer 

 scrutiny than they use at ordinary fences. 



The want of surface in the top bar of a gate, on 

 which the hind legs may get a momentary resting 

 place, causes Irish horses to be shy of such leaps 

 till accustomed to them ; and I think it by no 

 means improbable that coming to a description of 

 impediment to which he is unused may have so 

 puzzled and astonished an Irish horse that he mo- 

 mentarily hesitates and then bucks it, perhaps. 

 Having seen this may have led our correspondent 



