6o 



THE BEST OF THE FUN 



a new phase of riding to hounds, and to hounds hunting 

 indomitably, my good mount — "the big bay 'oss," as 

 they called him in the stable, "Green," as the Master 

 has christened him, on the lucus-a-non-hicendo principle — 

 reading me a lesson at every bank. Please do not 

 suppose for a moment that, cast loose by myself in 

 that country, I should have attempted progress at all 



except that, once landed into an Irish field, you are 



bound to jump out or remain there till rent-day (a date 

 hardly so specific as the Greek Kalends). These thread- 

 bare banks were solid only in their height. They stood 

 erect as the mud-walls of India, and often far above 

 saddle-level. But they had few ditches among them, 

 and the sensations I can best recall were : (i) the apparent 

 impossibility of getting on to the top of them ; (2) the 

 uncertainty of getting off again before they crumbled. 

 " Very unusual," they told me. And so I hope to find, 

 if ever fortune favours my hunting regularly in a peace- 

 able Tipperary. Yet a field of a hundred people made 

 light of them, and the lightest of the light were the 

 ladies, very prominent indeed of whom, I may venture 

 thus bluntly to say, was Mrs. Higgins. The meet had 

 been D'Arcy's Cross, and among the hundred were : Lord 

 and Lady Southampton, Mrs. Massy, Mrs. Higgins, Mr. and 

 Miss Watson, Mr., Mrs., and Miss Clifford, Miss Bookey, 

 Miss Malcolmson, Miss Going, Mr. and Miss Moote, Lord 

 William Bentinck, Lord Shaftesbury, Captain Kavanagh 

 and Mr. Brand (loth Hussars), Captain Bryan, Sir Charles 

 Gough, Colonel Inigo Jones, Colonel H. Parnell, Captain 

 Gough, Captain Orr and others of the Royal Irish Regi- 

 ment, Mr. Riall (to whom the beautiful gorse of Donegal 

 owes existence and welfare), Colonel Evanson, Messrs. 

 Scully, Wise, Perry, Burke (3), Hemphill, O. Jones, 

 Kennedy, Quinton (2), Smith, Phillips, and Colonel Kellis 

 on wheels. 



It were better, perhaps, if I were more geographical. 

 But when sailing in strange waters, and not even having 

 a chart at hand, one may well be excused for keeping 

 clear of the shallows. 'Tis a long way to go for illus- 

 tration, were it not that recent lamentable event suggests. 



