THE TIPPERARY HOUNDS. 1 53 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE TIPPERARY HOUNDS. 



" Gallant Tipperary ! " Strange, is It not, that I 

 should begin my brief notice of the Tipperary 

 Hounds with this hackneyed phrase. I deem the 

 title — first applied in the heat of battle by the great 

 conqueror of Scinde, Sir Charles Napier, to the 

 22nd regiment — so apt, that I cannot refrain from 

 using it. The inhabitants of the county have 

 been misrepresented, and some years ago many 

 Englishmen and foreigners were foolish enough to 

 believe that it would be safer to take a trip through 

 the most uncivilised part of the American Continent 

 than to the Rock of Cashel. Yet, the natives are 

 quiet, peaceable people, and devotedly attached to 

 all field-sports, or, as they say themselves, a '* trifle 

 of divarsion" of any sort. The boys of Tipperary 

 are remarkable for their cheery humour in love, war, 

 or a foxhunt. They are, indeed, " gallant and gay," 

 and decidedly liberal in their hospitality and political 

 opinions. People of all classes in the county are 

 glad to see the hounds in their neighbourhood. 

 Hunting has been at all times popular there with 

 "gentle and simple." Landlord and tenant, the red 

 coat and the broadcloth, have met at the cover-side 

 in amicable warfare long before '* equalising" 



