Lord Fermoy. 1 1 



the idiotic aphorism that 'horses run in all shapes' ; and their 

 breaking, an implicit reliance on the dispensations of a fickle 

 Providence. When I was about twelve years old, we left the 

 country and went to live in the suburbs of Cork, where I 

 devoted more of my time to running, rowing and other 

 athletic sports than to horses ; although I went out from time 

 to time with Lord Fermoy's hounds, and the Duhallows. 

 Lord Fermoy was a fine fellow and a rare good judge of a 

 horse. As he was not rich, he seldom gave more than a 

 hundred pounds for a hunter, at which price his eighteen 

 stone of bone and muscle was carried in a manner that it 

 would take five or six times that amount to do at the present 

 time. In those days in the county of Cork, £60 was re- 

 garded as a price that ought to buy a first flight hunter which 

 could jump, gallop, stay and carry weight — £200, now, is 

 nearer the figure. I remember a particularly fine hunter which 

 Lord Fermoy had, called Bullagaun, and named after a 

 small place that belonged to him, near Monkestown, ' on the 

 pleasant waters of the River Lee,' in the county of Cork. 

 Strange to say, after an interval of thirty years, that name 

 fell on my ears one morning by the Calcutta racecourse 

 when I was looking at a smart racing pony being measured. 

 ' Bullagaun,' I muttered, half to myself, ' was the name of a 

 great horse I once knew.' ' And he belonged to Lord Fer- 

 moy,' added, greatly to my surprise, a tall, fine-looking young 

 fellow who was standing near, and who happened to be the 

 owner of the pony. Mutual explanations followed, and I 

 learned that the gentleman to whom I was speaking was 

 Captain The Honourable Ulick Roche, who was Lord Fer- 

 moy's son. He told me that the original Bullagaun was 

 bought by his father for £200, sold by him for 1 500 guineas, 

 and subsequently fetched in Paris 2500 guineas, which is the 

 highest price I have ever heard that has been given for a 

 bona fide hunter. Lord Fermoy used to encourage horse- 

 breeding among his tenants, and was always ready to buy 

 from them any likely colt or filly they bred. Writing about 



