R XOTITIA VKNATir'A. 



the present Any, there is no country where the chase is not a favourite 

 pursuit. Tlie enormous expense which some monarchs have gone to 

 for the purftose of enjoying one day's grand pageant in the chase would 

 hardly credit hehef ; but the exhibition of those days consisted in merely 

 driving together an innncnse herd of deer and other animals, and slaugh- 

 tering them in heaps without discrimination. To England alone Ave 

 must look for that most manly of all recreations— the chase of the fox. 

 Even in the sister gem of the ocean, Avhere Irishmen are proverbial for 

 their hard-riding and attachment to the sport, the baneful effects of mis- 

 goverument seem to threaten it with annihilation. It is not a long time 

 since, the Marquis of Watcrford — acknowledged as one of the wealthiest 

 and most liberal noblemen of the land — has been compelled to relinquish 

 the country he was hunting, in the county of Tipperary, on account of 

 the numerous demoniac attempts, not only to poison his lordship's 

 hounds twice, but even to destroy by incendiarism the stables occupied 

 by the horses of the hunt. No cause could be attributed for this most 

 atrocious act, but that spirit which so unhappily stalks abroad in that 

 devoted land, threatening Avith secret death all those Avho may differ 

 from the perpetrators either in politics or religion. The following ac- 

 count, which appeared in the Limerick paper, and Avas copied into many 

 of the daily journals, Avill throAv as much light on the subject as if I Avere 

 to attempt to Avrite a dozen pages in condemnation of this most fiendish 

 outrage : — 



•' Lord Waterford has expressed his determination never to hunt the 

 county of Tipperary again ; but in order that this resolution should not 

 impair the future operations of the club, with a truly generous and 

 sporting feeling, the noble peer has signified to the committee his in- 

 tention of presenting fifty-two couples of hounds and five horses from his 

 OAvn stud, besides an annual subscription of .£100 to the hunt. It ap- 

 jiears that it AA^as not one or tAvo, but a dozen threatening letters his 

 lordship had received about persons in his employment, Avhich Avas suffi- 

 cient to disgust him, even if his stabling luxd not been fired. A better 

 justification of one of the greatest evils that ever afflicted a country — 

 absenteeism — could not he Avell conceived ; and if report spoke true, 

 much more had taken place, Avell calculated to disgust the noble marquis, 

 and thus deprive the country of the benefits accruing from the constant 

 residence of a Avealthy, liberal, and kind-hearted landlord." 



Although in many parts of the continent the nature of the land is most 

 favourable to hunting, being in many places an immense expanse of as 

 fine champaign country as could be Avished for, still the tastes of the in- 

 habitants have hardly ever led them to attempt it ; in fact, the enormous 

 penalties and other annoyances attached to riding over that land Avhlch 

 is in cultivation, although not even soAvn Avith a crop, Avould entirely de- 

 prive the sportsman of foUoAving his amusement Avith the least degree of 

 comfort or security. 



The manner in Avhich the fox is destroyed on the continent is by the 

 gun, or digging him Avith a small dog resembling our crooked-legged 

 terriers, in (ierniany called dacks-hunden (corrupted into taxles), or 

 badger dogs ; and aUliougli l)otli in (lint [nut of the continent and in 



