66 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



no hedges, you could see all the time hounds 

 absolutely pouring on, and this after eight miles 

 with part of it fast. I can feel my old mare now 

 as she swung into those banks, as gamely as when 

 we left Grange, and galloped as resolutely across 

 the big fields. 



The fastest hunt I shall probably ever see was 

 in the same year from Ballyregan to Tervoe. 

 All over a fly country, stone walls, but spoilt by 

 railway gates which gave hounds a tremendous 

 advantage. They went racing up into Tervoe 

 as if they were finishing a Dogs' Derby. I was 

 just near enough to see, having got a lucky 

 turn after the railing, one man with them, and 

 one close up, and we killed just inside the front 

 gate. Horses were absolutely done up after that 

 gallop, one which kept with them all through 

 was not out for two months, the second was a 

 thoroughbred, and my little horse, a borrowed 

 mount, had to have a fortnight's rest, though he 

 was on the top of the ground and a fast fencer 

 and I never pressed him. 



The longest hunt I ever remember was in the 

 stone-wall country. I was riding the same little 

 brown. Little Barry, then a four year old. It was 

 twenty- two miles and eleven of it fast. We ran a 

 wide ring of quite eleven miles, coming back 

 having had more than enough to Cahermoyle 

 when we had found, but just as our dead-beat 

 fox trailed past Meade's fort, a fresh one jumped 



