TIPPEKARY 157 



CHAPTER XXII 



TIPPERARY 



It had long been my ambition to see county Tipperary, 

 to gallop over its grassy acres, and, if might be, to try a 

 fling at its lofty banks. " A sea of turf, cut and marked 

 with plain turf banks, broad and high — and no one knows 

 where the earth came from of which they were made. 

 And you may get over them anywhere." This was the 

 description that elsewhere had been given me over and 

 over again, and that I now heard repeated on the spot. 

 Last week, on my way through Ireland, Mr. Burke assisted 

 me to verify, or negative, the description, on the excellent 

 basis of horses not only trained to the country, but in 

 condition to go, the latter state being ever difficult to attain 

 in the month of October, whether in Ireland or England. 

 1 can't say that from these two days' cheery experience I 

 found my information to have been entirely accurate. 

 Indeed, if I w^ent only upon what I saw and encountered 

 with hounds on these Wednesday and Thursday mornings, 

 I would no more accept it than, if I remember aright, 

 Talleyrand did the definition of a crab, viz. that it was 

 " a red fish that walked backwards." For in the run of 

 Wednesday we were chiefly among tillage : the banks were 

 very narrow, and, as often as not, almost denuded of turf : 

 while on Thursday most of the fences were found to be 

 surmounted by strong thorn, were almost smothered with 

 bramble and weed — under whose overhanging canopy on 

 either side lay a deep ditch, in waiting for whoever might 

 try to " get over anywhere." Yet, I protest, I was in no 

 degree disappointed ; nor am I disposed to accept any 

 lower estimate of the country than that already put before 

 me. The whim of the foxes led us into eccentricities of 

 the country, as was explained to me at the time, and as I 

 had opportunity of seeing for myself as more and more 

 ground opened itself for observation. Otherwise, expect- 

 ing only eccentricity and novelty as I went, I might in my 

 ignorance have gone away with a very inadequate idea of 



