TIPPERARY i6i 



I remember that the gunboat Grasshopper, in which I did 

 the most exciting hunting of my life — the chase of Chinese 

 pirates in the half-mapped seas 'twixt Formosa and the 

 mainland — very frequently went ashore under her ven- 

 turous commander. " And a half two ! " — " Stop her ! Full 

 speed astern!" {\.\\<i folly ho — ba-ack of the sea) still rings 

 often in my dreams. But I might well have entered 

 in my log that, sailing from the port of Donegal, 

 we cruised on a westward, half-circular course, and 

 anchored with a kill near Barne, at the end of forty-five 

 minutes. 



Almost immediately the Master and his white horse 

 were again on the move, and we followed. It was much 

 as if Tom Firr, having killed his fox at Barkby Holt, were 

 ordered to draw the Coplow and went thither a bee-line, 

 after the manner of Osbaldeston and Captain Ross. We 

 all accepted the lead obediently, though I thought it 

 strange, but dared not do otherwise. (Wliai pangs I 

 should save myself could I but play the coward that 

 I feel, in prospect and retrospect especially, and what 

 fun I should lose I) This was nearly as good as a run ; 

 and, after all, they used to do much the same thing in 

 Charles Payne's time with the Pytchley, did they not ? 



The little lark from point to point led to Woodrooff, 

 one of the strongholds of the country ; and, round its 

 park and woods, the pack drove one of its many foxes for 

 an hour, till a rabbit-hole saved him. 



And now, in the cursory fashion that must be the 

 privilege of the wanderer, I come to Thursday — Drangan 

 the meet, and Ballylennan the draw ( Bally lennan and 

 Ballyluski being more or less homogeneous, I contrive to 

 retain them in memory as the bases of the day). 



Ballylennan, then, is another pretty gorse, this time 

 in a flat valley, and at the foot of a hill on which another 

 covert, Kyle — of more jungle-like description — has its 

 place ; and in the gorse were at least two brace of foxes. 

 As I stood by the covertside I caught some such remark 

 as " A capital place, if you would only get away from it." 

 And the action of a hard-riding Irish field in turning to 

 the nearest gateway (just as we do in the English Mid- 



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