136 LADIES ON HORSEBACK. 



as I have set forth in my dissertation upon 

 the cutting up of carrots. 



I now desire to warn you that if you 

 hunt in Ireland you must be prepared for 

 the laughable and most ingenious frauds 

 which the poor people — alas ! how poor — will 

 certainly endeavour to practise upon you. 

 I can, and do most fully, commiserate their 

 poverty, but with their attempts at im- 

 position I have long since lost patience. 

 Doubtless they think that everybody who 

 hunts is of necessity a rich person, and 

 conceive the idea that by fleecing the wealthy 

 they will aid in blotting out the poverty of 

 the land. Nothing delights the old cottage- 

 woman more than to kill an ancient hen or 

 duck on a hunting-morning, and then, when 

 the hunt comes sweeping past her door, out 

 rushes the beldame with the bird concealed 

 beneath her apron, and throwing it deftly — 

 positively by a species of sleight of hand — 

 beneath your horse's hoofs, kicks up a mighty 

 whining, and declares that you have " kilt her 

 beauty-ful fowl ! " I was so taken aback upon 

 the first of these occasions that I actually 



