282 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



There were the fevered days of leave, countmg 

 each hour as it passed, and the partings worse 

 each time. 



I think the first meets after peace had come 

 were stranger still, one felt as if the lost thrusters 

 who had ridden here, and would ride no more, 

 were there beside us, phantoms in pink back 

 in their beloved bank country. 



In 1915 the rebellion stirred us. Easter Monday, 

 I remember, was a soaking day, and I first heard 

 the news on the telephone. DubUn was cut off. 

 A message had come through — ^its last words, 

 " The Sinn Feiners are in the office," and then 

 silence. 



Friends of mine in Dublin, up for the races, 

 went through it, getting away with difficulty. 

 We really only saw the serio-comic side. . . . All 

 telephones were cut off. . . . Barricades were 

 erected on the bridges, and frenzied housewives 

 rushed about laying in provisions. 



The barrier on the Wellesley Bridge was 

 most imposing, and I remember rushing down 

 to see it and upsetting a neat stack of bayonets, 

 but no one minded. An irate old lady in an ass 

 cart was trying to pass out just as I got there. 

 Wheeled traffic had to go round by another 

 bridge. 



" Young man," she hailed the sentry. " Young 

 man, let me pass if ye plaze." 



